Pretty Little Life EDITING
by livingdream98
Summary: Alexis didn't want to move to Rosewood, she was as happy as can be back in Texas, she hated the thought of losing everything she had spent so long building up, but aren't changes good? Can she fit in as much as she did in good Ol' Texas? Rosewood has the potential to ruin her life - forever, but can also help her life, so which one shall it be?
1. My pretty little life

I love where I stand in rosewood, well, only since I met Alison.

Yep, you heard it right, this is Alison DiLaurentis I'm talking about. Other people that aren't her friends think that she is a mean girl, but they haven't seen the other side of her. I have. We've known eachother for just over half a year, I moved here at the beginning of October, only to find I was still soaking up the Pennyslyvanian sun. And it was October!

I totally feel at home now, like everything is perfect and nothing could ruin it. Absolutely nothing. I guess the best thing at the moment is having friends that can keep secrets, Alison is definately both of those. So she texted me:

_Hey wanna come round, I have nothing to do, but I need to tell you something... Ali :)_

I grabbed my iPhone and literally jumped down the stairs, picked up my bag and went to reach for the door when a familiar voice said 'Where are you going?' I turned to see my brother, Joe (I reckon he's just older by looks and secretly younger by intelligence and brain cells).

'Next door, I'm friends with Alison, Can you cope being by yourself?' I replied sarcastically and smiled.

'Yeah' he replied 'You know I get your sarcasm and jokes, but not everyone will', (I knew what he was trying to do, and it clearly wasn't working) Joe was trying to be the mature and responsible one because he's supposed to be older than me.

'I'm gonna be back soon, I know my presence is a treat and a bless but I have my own life' I thought this was a better comeback if I do say so myself.

'You seriously think I'm blessed, whatever you say' Joe replied, he said this with almost no expression, I guessed that something was up.

'Okay dude, what's up? You're still not over this whole moving sensation, are you?' I said. It was so obvious, it didn't exactly take a therapist to realise how he felt.

'I guess not, I just hate moving around all the time' I had performed a miracle, my brother had opened up to me!(In case you haven't realised, Joe never ever opens up to anyone, well maybe my dad on rare occasions, but this will be logged!)

My phone buzzed again, It was Alison:

_Hey, what's taking you so long? Ali :/_

I texted back:

_I'm having a heart2heart convo with my bro, sorry, it's taking longer than I thought. Alexis :(_

I got back to the coversation with Joe,'I haven't exactly moved on either, I just have some new friends, that's all' I said, I felt so pleased with myself, no sarcasm. Yet.

'Well it seems like you've completely forgotten about Texas, or you can cover things up really well' he smiled for the last sentence, he was getting there.

'I haven't forgotten about Texas, I still talk to Jess on IM, It's kind of difficult not to forget' I replied, I felt like me and Joe were now distant from the world that we used to know in Texas.

' We were there for longer than two years, but we're in a new place' he got up from the chair 'And there's no reason to be unhappy, it's a new time for us and we can do whatever we want' he gleamed, this was the brother knew and loved (even if I didn't say it often enough).

'Well, not everything' I laughed.

I texted Alison:

_Sorry, joe was being a misery guts and we talked about stuff like being new etc. TYML Alexis :)_

She texted back immediately:

_Don't worry, we have all afternoon anyway, heart2heart talks R good, take all the time U :)_

Another thing I love about Alison is that she is just so nice to me, I would've thought that she would've got a bit annoyed, but apparently not.

'You know if you wanna talk to anyone besides through IM, Jason, Alison's brother seems really nice, you could talk to him' I have seriously changed since being in Rosewood, being nice and giving decent advice was not one of my goals in life. It felt good though.

Joe was quite pleased with me, 'Are you sure you're feeling okay, you're having a conversation with me and you haven't tried sarcasm or offended me yet'. (I tried mock offense, but I reckon it failed!).

I thought something was up too 'Yeah, I'm feeling fine, I just think being nice and straight with no insults or sarcasm is nice, once in a while' I said proudly.

'Right, so thankyou for not doing any of that, and if it means that much to you I will talk to Jason' I was satisfied, I got my way without it getting twisted and out of hand (I'm so proud of myself right now).

I was finished with my amazing advice and clearly Joe was satisfied.'Can I go to Alison's then?' I said with hope.

'Yeah, I never said no, be back by Seven' He replied. I seriously don't know how he changed from miserable to being all cheerful and himself again (but he's happy now, that's the main thing).

'Okay, I'm off then' I said.

'You make it sound like you're on an expedition or a mountain climb' Joe laughed 'Have fun, I can't see how it'll be fun...' he continued.

'You ruined it, don't crush good conversation' I smiled.

'I think that was good conversation, we haven't had one of those in a long time' he replied, then glanced at his phone and read out a text 'Wait a second, Dad wants us at the airport to meet Mum, she arrives in half an hour'. I was NOT happy, as soon as I get to go out with my friends, something else comes up. This always happens.

I sighed, 'Okay, I'll text Alison then. We should probably go now' I said as I took my phone out of my pocket, I texted Alison:

_Hey, I can't go to urs, I'm sorry, my dad isn't very smart at texting the right time, I have 2 go 2 the airport to meet my mum, sorry :(-Alexis _

She replied back:

_Out of the blue much, don't worry :) Ali _

I thought she was being way too nice, so I texted back:

_No, it's really not OK. It seems like the whole world is against me :( -Alexis _

She texted back:

_Ur not the only one having a bad day, TYL why -Alison _

Something about that text made me feel wierd, Alison never has bad days that she tells me about, she always enjoys other people's pain (well, people who aren't her friends and who she's not nice to). I wanted to text her to see why but she said she'll tell me later. I'm not an impatient person.

I had finally got out.

'So what did you want to tell me?' I asked as me and Alison sat down in her room. I had finally got out after meeting my mum and having the talk with my brother (FYI it was so wierd!).

'Well, there's something you should know, and, I'm not entirely sure how to say it, without you going crazy' She smiled, I did tend to go crazy about things that weren't good (she knew me so well).

'I go crazy for the right reasons' I said in mock horror 'What is it?'. Alison was reluctant for a minute, I guess she was trying to figure out what to say, there was really nothing else to think about.

'Okay, so I'm getting stalked and blackmailed by someone, and I don't know who' she said this within one breath, I'm not entirely sure how she did it, but I manage to sometimes.

'WHAT!' I exclaimed, I found this too hard to believe, Alison out of all people.

'So I'm telling you to be extra careful at the party, I guarantee you'll be targeted next' she said 'Don't tell anyone because they'll be targeted too' I was stunned for a second.

'So I guess the police aren't much help then' I muttered.

'If we get the police involved, they're going to want to know a lot more' she trailed off.

'I'm never gonna get those answers am I?' I asked.

Alison sighed 'Two can only keep a secret if one of them is dead, I don't think either of us will want to be killed' she chuckled, shortly cut off by Jason shouting upstairs.

'Ali, it's a bit loud isn't it!'. Alison had put the radio on to stop him from hearing everything they were saying.

'I think we both have different interpretations of loud!' We both laughed. Me and Joe had different interpretations of loud too, we had so much in common!

'Okay so onto other stuff, are you enjoying Rosewood?' Alison asked me.

'Yeah, despite what you just told me, I love it. I'm finally not a social reject anymore!' I replied as I held my arms up in victory. We were both smiling now,

'So, the top social event of the year is Noel's halloween party, which is Monday, so we need to go shopping' Alison said, it sounded so compulsory, like you would be nothing without it. 'Have you met Noel?' she asked, it would be pointless if I didn't know who he was.

'Well I know who he is, but I haven't met him though' I replied 'You got any ideas for costumes?' I continued.

'Marilyn Monroe or Lady G, you?' Alison replied.

I looked up at the ceiling of her room, 'Um, I was thinking like, a dark witch, or Taylor Momsen, I guess that's goth... I can't decide' I smiled.

'I reckon Taylor Momsen, it'll go great with your hair, you have the same colour hair as she does, Definately Momsen' Alison said 'I think Aria's planning on going as a witch anyway, you should have an original' she continued.

Something smashed downstairs, we both went silent.

'What the hell was that?' I asked Alison as we both jumped.

'I have no idea, but bring this down with us' she said as she handed me a field hockey stick, 'You might need this as defence, I have my suspicions...' Alison trailed off, we left her room and creeped downstairs to see what had happened. We came down to a foyer with a floor covered with shattered glass, I dodged the glass and picked up a note which I read aloud:

_'You're making this too easy, 2 is better than 1 -A'. _

Alison sighed 'Oh god, I knew this would happen, we gotta try to clear this up', Jason walked out from the garden.

'What the hell was that?' he shouted, Alison looked at me, 'He knows' she said, she looked back at Jason 'A did it'.

He rolled his eyes, 'what do they want from us?'.

Alison replied 'I'm pretty sure it's me they want dead' she said with no emotion. 'Well they're gonna have fun with si-'.

'Seven' Jason interrupted me.

'They're gonna have fun with seven of us, they can't kill us all' I said as I exchanged looks with Jason and Alison 'I guess you can't tell the police?' I suggested.

'Well, no cuz then we've gotta explain how we got everything that we shouldn't' he replied.

I gave him a puzzled look.

'We have Melissa's old field hockey stick and the police think that it could be what killed the old lady living here about 50 years ago' Alison explained,

'And even then Rosewood still wasn't the best place to live, many blackmailers had been listed then and we reckon that it was like parents do it, so the children carry it on'.

A shiver travelled through my spine, I was worried now, I didn't want to be murdered. 'Okay, so this house was and still is everyone's worst nightmare, that just sugar coats Rosewood' I attempted to joke.

'Okay, so wanna go Monday?' Alison asked, Jason clearly didn't know, 'Halloween party, on Monday' I informed Jason.

'Right' he replied.

A/N Remember to Review :-)


	2. Party Prep

I tell you it is so annoying shopping for Halloween costumes, the sizes are messed up and individuality goes out of the window when you find out that girl has the same costume as you.

The other girls had their costumes sorted out already, me and Ali were the last ones because our plans had changed in short notice, the plan was to go yesterday but with the bombshell that she dropped on me I found it hard to register the fact that someone was in fact stalking her.

I had spent countless hours googling different ideas for costumes and I was almost close to giving up and just going as some sort of object that is tagged as being Halloween-y when I was inspired by Taylor Momsen.

Seeing as no one seemed to have heard of her I thought I had more of a chance than I would've compared to going as something else. I was in the costume shop with Ali at the moment and we were finally getting somewhere.

"Okay I'm done, Lady Gaga" Ali said, picking up a costume, " If anyone else turns up in the same thing they'll just have to face the fact that I'll look a million times better".

"Someone's got a big head" I said.

"Face it, some people are gonna drag Gaga through the dirt when we get there" Ali shrugged.

"Okay, I need something to wear now" I said, I started rooting through clothes rails but was unsuccessful.

"How about this?" she held up a Lolita dress, it was a greyish colour and it would probably never see daylight after I wear it once for this, I decided I couldn't be bothered to spend any more time trying to find something to wear.

"What do I have to lose?" I sighed, "I'll just make my hair really big so it'll be hell the morning after".

We finished the shopping and were walking back to my house when Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer caught up with us, the party was about 4 hours away so we had maybe 2 hours' time to relax and chat like teen girls do.

This was more a pep talk and a warning to me about some of the people who might be there, I had something I guess you could call special treatment cuz I had a first-hand warning from pretty much all the girls telling me to stay away from this Josh guy.

"Even I don't take interest in this, but I'm serious when I say he's bad news" Spencer said, "He'll mess you about like he does with everyone else".

"Okay, okay" I said holding my hands up, "I'll stay away from him once I know what he looks like".

"Just look for the guy with a lot of female attention and you'll be good to go" Hanna said.

Ali looked at the time, "Well two hours well spent every one" she said, "Let's get going".

I started off by making my hair unnatural and gave myself side bangs by messing with my parting and backcombing, that took me the longest 15 minutes of my life!

The other girls were halfway through doing their costumes when I started doing a quick Cara Delevingne grunge kind of look for makeup. I wasn't quite sure what my costume idea was once I put everything on but it looked pretty good.

"So, um do you have any idea what you're supposed to be?" Spencer asked.

"It was supposed to be Taylor Momsen" I said looking at myself in the mirror, "Now I just look like a 90's kid with a greyish dress".

"Which could still work cuz she was born in '92" Ali added.

"Whatever, you'd definitely win most historic" I said to Spencer.

"You'd probably win most original" Spencer replied.

I had heels on – obviously cuz I'm a girl who looks small, I also managed to find my purple leather jacket, after everyone made sure we had each other's numbers and set the ringtones on load we were all good to go.


	3. Noel Kahn's Halloween Party

**Chapter 3 **

'So, are you gonna tell me who you are?' the boy asked. I had met this cute guy at the party, but as you can see I haven't told him who I am yet, 'In your dreams, loverboy. I'm vulnerable. For all I know you could be some stalker or something' I smiled, he gave me a puzzled look 'Okay, oh and just so you know, I don't stalk people' he laughed.

Oh my god, I was talking to a complete stranger, this is slightly worrying!

'You're a friend of Alison, aren't you?' he asked, 'Maybe, or not. I'm not saying anything' I smiled as a drank some punch. 'I might not be able to ask questions, but I can make out your eyes' he said as he looked down at me to focus on my eyes. 'Just about, I had a hard time trying to recognise myself in the mirror' I laughed 'Sweet talk won't get you any answers, but I promise I'll reveal myself' I said 'Maybe' he replied.

Aria was standing by the stage, it looked like she was trying to get my attention, but it wasn't exactly a decent way to not make it obvious; waving her hand to come to her. 'Looks like you're needed' he nodded as he pointed to where Aria was, 'Yeah' I sighed 'I'll be back in a minute' I said reluctantly, I really didn't want to go- but I had to (I liked this guy, We were holding hands at one point!) . I walked over to Aria, 'Who's the guy? Anyways, it turns out that A is here, dressed as Slitheen' she warned me, 'He's just some guy I met, thanks, I'll keep watch' I said, 'Keep the mystery up' Aria encouraged 'You can go back to loverboy' she teased me, 'Hey, he does have a name. I just don't know it yet...' I trailed off. 'Don't give up, you'll find out sooner or later' Aria smiled. 'See you later' I said as I hugged her, 'Good luck' she smiled.

I smiled as I walked back to where I was. 'What was that about?' he asked me, I replied with a simple 'Nothing, just checking I was okay; I am okay' I shrugged it off.

Noel appeared up on the stage, ' Hey' He said to get our attention, 'You guys have a challenge, figure out who's Alexis and who's Alison' He smiled as he gave the DJ his microphone back and walked off the stage.

I went back to the table to get some punch, then I saw the guy I was talking to earlier; who was standing right next to me. 'We have gotta stop meeting like this' he laughed, I blushed (I'm pretty sure you can't see it under the amount of makeup I was wearing) 'Yeah' I replied. There was a group of girls standing behind me and this guy, they were staring in jealousy at me, 'Looks like your entourage is waiting for you' I joked, he must be a popular guy at school. 'Yeah, they've followed me everywhere, you're way more interesting' he smiled. 'Thanks, more interesting than cheerleaders, that's good. I guess' I smirked.

I think something was going on.

'You know this is really awkward with me not knowing who you are, I really like you' he said as he took my hands,' I know, but something could get me noticed for all the wrong reasons, and we wouldn't be able to be like we are' I explained. 'Well, it is halloween, so this is something' he deeply looked into my eyes. Blush. 'This is killing me' I sighed 'Which one do you think I am, Alison or Alexis?' I asked, 'Definately Alexis, you're way too nice to be Alison' he replied. 'Alison isn't that horrible, she gets a bit defensive sometimes' I shrugged.

I was falling for this guy, he could see right through me, I guess he likes me too!

'You know, this would've been so much easier if we'd known eachother before now' he said, 'You have no idea how tempting it is to take off your mask' I said, 'Well, I can't exactly see you with that makeup of yours, so I guess we're even' he smiled, 'Looks like the party's gonna end soon' the guy sighed, 'Yeah, just as we were geting to know eachother' I sighed, 'We weren't really' he confessed. 'No, but it's nice like this'.

A silence approached across the entire party, Aria and Alison had shuffled across to me, 'Anybody know what's happening?' Aria asked, 'Nope' I said as the lights went out.

This was the slightest bit creepy.

'Um, that's wierd' I said, suddenly a figure jumped onto the stage; and it wasn't Noel. The voice had been distorted so nobody could figure out who it was. 'Where's this Alexis girl, she's here somewhere' the voice said. Noel came to the front before Alison could 'What the hell do you want!' he shouted 'she's done nothing!' he continued, shouting. 'I just want her, I'm the one who should be asking the questions!' the voice shouted back. 'Okay, I'm scared now' I whispered to the guy, 'Don't worry, I got your back and I'm pretty sure everyone else will' he assured me.

Alison whispered to me 'This is connected to this whole A situation, don't give yourself in', 'I'm not gunna, don't worry' I assured her. Noel was still arguing with this voice, 'She's not here anyway' he lied, no sarcasm; this was going good. 'She went back to Texas, she was homesick' he continued to lie. Noel was being really sweet.

The lights had come back on.

All of my friends were with me now. 'Just give me the girl, why wouldn't she be at the social event of the year, stupid girl' the voice muttered off. 'That hurt' I retorted.

I couldn't hold back any longer.

'What do you want from her?' I shouted at the figure, Noel understood what I was doing, so followed 'It's all very nic saying you want her, but why?' he said. 'You think I'd tell you I'm supposed to kidn-' the voice stopped.

He was gunna kidnap me, probably kill me too, but there we go. Reverse psychology rules!

'Have fun tryna get her, the cops are here!' I shouted, 'And she's not a kid, she's fifteen! Idiot!' I shouted. The cops handcuffed the man and started to walk him over to the car, 'Someday, I'll get you all. I'd be careful if I were you, I'm not the only one' He retorted. I gave Alison a scared look, 'Told you' she mouthed. The mask had been taken off to reveal a complete stranger, Alison and I had the same expression on our faces, 'Oh my god!' we both chorused. Noel gave a creeped out look that was exchanged between him, me and Alison, he laughed at the thought of saying something at the same time. I smiled at him.

I walked back over to the guy I was talking to - before this living nightmare had occured, I got to him after some guy from the Lacrosse team had finished talking with him.

'You alright?' he asked, he'd obviously seen what had happened ocer the past half and hour. 'Yeah, well not really. Some man just tried to kidnap me' I replied, within an entire breath. 'The cops have him now, don't worry. I got your back' he said 'I'm pretty sure everybody else has too' he continued.

Everybody had started to leave now. I guess they wanted to get home before something drastic happened again, this party had only lasted an hour and a half! This really sucked right now. 'We'll see eachother again, right?' I asked him, 'Yeah of course' he said 'You promised anyway' he continued and smiled.

Then that's when it happened. That moment of glory. A kiss, that I guess we both had been waiting for the entire night.

It lasted for what seemed like half the time of eternity. ' Wow, way to go Matt, that girl's a keeper' someone shouted to him. The kiss ended, 'Sorry about that' He smiled, I laughed, 'It's nothing' I said 'So you're Matt, then' I continued, 'Yeah, something I forgot' he replied. I must remember that.

'I don't wanna leave now, I've only just found out what your name is' I sighed. 'To be honest, I'm kinda glad it's over, I mean the only good part was us meeting eachother' he replied. I really didn't want to leave now.

We kissed again.

Aria was waiting for me, and I'm pretty sure she saw what I was doing. 'See you around then' Matt said, 'See you around' I repeated, I started to walk off, and I spun around to him, 'I promise' my final words to him to end the night. 'Me too' he replid with a smile, it was a cute smile, really cute.


	4. POV's

_**POV's**_

_Matt_

The kiss had ended; obviously. Everyone had started to leave after the cops arrived; Alexis was one of them who wanted to go home before anything else happened, she went with Alison and co.

So, me and the lacrosse guys (a.k.a my friends) were going home too and I had the honors of driving. Joe clearly didn't register things as quick as other people do, 'Dude, do you know who you made out with?' he asked, I pretended I didn't know by shrugging, 'She's like Ali D's best friend!'.

As I mentioned earlier, I already knew this, 'I know' I replied, 'I take it you managed to figure it out then?'. I think Joe was smarter than you gave him credit for, he just didn't show it often enough.

'Well yeah, only after she said she was the new girl that creep wanted' He confessed 'When did you?' he asked.

'When I realised she was way too nice to be Alison' I acted as it it was plain obvious.

'Alison is way more evil, I've seen her like it' Noel added.

'Hey, I saw you with Aria, I'm pretty sure you made out with her too', I couldn't help myself.

'You and Alexis seem way more interesting than me and Aria do' Noel admitted, 'Anyway as far as she knows I was a complete stranger, similar to your situation I guess' He continued. I was pretty sure that Aria knew Noel well enough to recognise his voice and attitude though.

_Alexis_

'So did the guy figure out who you were?' Aria asked, she was the first to figure out what was happening between me and Matt.

'Yeah, he said I was too nice to be you, Alison' I laughed as I looked at her, she shook her head on mock horror.

'Did you find out who he was?' she asked me.

'Kinda, his name's Matt and he's hot' I stated.

'Is that it?' Spencer asked.

'Sorry, I would've got more info but the lights turned off and that creep demanded for me!' I answered, I said this more dramatically than I thought I would, that was a funny was daydreaming, I guess looking out the window is what you call it, I guess she was wondering how the night should've gone; not how it did in reality, she flashed back into the present almost immediately.

'SPENCE, WATCH OUT!' She screamed, Spencer slammed on the brakes as soon as Emily had screamed. We all caught our breaths as we tried to register what was going on; some man all dressed in black had ran out into the road, with some sorta bag with what looked like a body in it.

'Tell me I'm going crazy, but I see some man with a body bag, that's not empty' Hanna screamed.

She wasn't going crazy, there was a man with a body bag, he had some sort of weapon as well, we just carried on driving until we got to my house. After that, we talked until about 2 in the morning; then we fell asleep.

_The next morning:_

We all woke up around 9am, we slept well. We all got washed and did our makeup in my room, we went over to the kitchen to have breakfast. But, to our surprise we weren't the only ones in the house besides from my family and my friends; everybody's parents turned up without a warning. Alison and I walked in first, everyone else followed; we were all laughing, but we were all shortly cut off by parents in my lounge; sitting where my guitar was (I was supposed to have moved that last night before I went out, whoopsies!)

'Oh my god' Alison muttered

'This is embarassing' I smiled, trying not to laugh by looking down at my feet. We were all in our pyjamas still and our hair was a mess; my mom kept hold of my curling tongs and strighteners and wavers.

'What are you doing here?' Hanna asked, clearly we were all cringing at the fact that we were wrecks.

'Just having a chat' Byron, Aria's dad answered as he stood up to look at Aria.

'About?' Aria sounded confused, 'You could've told us, we wouldn't look like we had been dragged through a bush backwards if you did!' I smirked at Aria's comment; it was true though.

'That party last night, Alexis, what happened?' My dad asked.

'Ok, well before you have a go at me, I was gonna wait til today to tell you' I sighed, 'Some man, managed to get through the security at the party, get on to the stage and admitted after Noel using reverse psychology that he wanted to kidnap me' I slumped down onto the floor to put my guitar and music things away.

'First of all, who's Noel?' he asked

'Some guy in our class, he's friends with kinda everyone' I jerked my head to look at Alison, she rolled her eyes.

'I've met Noel, it's true what she's saying' Ella, Aria's mom agreed.

'Ok, so what else happened?' my dad asked, he was being really cool about it, this was surprising, or he just kept calm coz everyone else was here.

'Well, Noel shouted hey what d'ya want and all that, then Alison came into it, then I did, then we ,well Noel mainly, used that reverse psychology, he admitted everything' I was outta breath, 'Then, the cops came and we went home'. I kept myself busy whilst talking because a plectrum had fell into the hole of the guitar. Typical.

'So, it's sorted then' he asked.

'Yep' I replied.

'Except other things happened' Alison said mysteriously, trust her to bring that up.

'That shall NOT be mentioned, thanks' I glared at her.

'What?' Dad asked.

'Nothing bad, You'll find out sooner or later' I smiled

Joe decided to walk in and get his college work (it needed sorting out big time!). Geez, he felt uncomfortable, I had never seen him like it, ever! 'You're up early, Lex' he said, 'This wasn't voluntarily, I came in to get hair stuff' I said , he shook his head in mockery.

'Anyway, you must've been talking about something else' I said as I was still getting the plectrum outta the guitar. Everyone was giving me funny looks about the guitar.

'What are you doing?' Emily asked whilst laughing.

I sighed 'There's a plectrum in the guitar, literally in it' I smiled, Aria knew what I was doing, my dad did too.

'In english' Spencer said.

'There's a bit of plastic that's fallen in the guitar, the plastic's called a plectrum, you'll understand in music' I assured.

'Yeah, so we were talking about the party, that's it' My dad said. He was lying, I was the worst liar in the world, that was rich coming from me.

'Dad, I love you, but you are the worst liar in the history of liars' I said, still shaking- 'Victory at last' I sighed. My dad smirked. The plectrum had finally stopped being so difficult it had dropped out.

'I talk to myself, so what' I retorted, 'How long have you been up, dad?' I asked

'An hour or so, I guess' he shrugged.

'Had coffee?' I asked

'Yes, I do remember to have coffee' he said.

'Good, enough for us then' I replied.

'Okay, we got what we came here for, we gotta take Mike to lacrosse' Byron announced.

'Why didn't you just bring him in with you?' Aria asked, 'It's freezing outside!'.

'We didn't think of it, to be honest' Byron admitted.


	5. First Date

'Ok, see you later then' I smiled as Matt kissed me,

'Bye beautiful' he replied.

Since the party, we had thought about being together and I guess we were dating, it happened within a flash compared to everything else that happens (or already has, in my case) in life.

I got in the car, My mom had promised to not be late from work (you'd be surprised how caught up she got in social working!) so she could pick me up. 'How was school?' she asked as she pulled out of the parking lot.

'Good, for a change. It was just a typical day though' I answered.

'Homework?' She asked

'Yeah, music and that's it' I replied.

It might've been a typical day at school, but tonight would be different, I had a date tonight with Matt, my boyfriend of about three weeks, I think. So for the next two hours I would be getting ready, I had this long because my hair likes being difficult and I had way too many clothes.

At home:

I was getting ready, I already found something to wear and it was laid out on my shoe chair, I had showered and was in the process of taming my hair. March was quite hot in Pennysylvania so I was technically wearing summer stuff; I didn't care though, it looked nice.

Seeing as I looked like a zombie racoon at Halloween (I thought of it as our last date), I decided to have the makeup on I had on at school today; mascara, kohl pencil and lip gloss. My hair wasn't difficult to style like I had predicted it to be, I put it straight back into a fishtail plait. I looked at myself in the mirror, I looked normal; compared to Halloween and at school.

I was insecure about quite a lot of things now since A had come along, insecure about how I looked, how I was as a person, how I was about everything. I stood staring at my reflection, I told myself 'You look beautiful, you're gonna have a good time tonight' I whispered. I couldn't have been the only insecure person out of the entire group.

I only took half an hour, so I got my phone and went through texts. Alison, Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily all had sent texts saying the same thing:

_Hey, have fun tonite, bring extra lipgloss if you're gonna kiss :P_

Trust them to say that, Matt had already kissed me tons in front of them (I'm probably exaggerating with tons, I had lost count though).

My mom was finally ready, she drove me to where Matt's car was; she was still freaking out about what had happened at the party in October. 'Be back by half eleven' she stated, it was Friday so I had longer, 'Bye' I said as I hugged her.

_In Matt's car:_

My phone beeped. I knew it was A, Matt's phone beeped as well. 'No guessing on who that might be' I sighed.

'What does A want from you?' he asked, it was starting to irritate him.

'I don't know, they want Alison dead for some reason' I shrugged.

'Not everybody likes her' Matt agreed.

Awkward moment.

'So, how many guys have you gone out with?' Matt asked. This was quite spontaneous.

'A couple, I can't remember half of them, I think I was about thirteen' I answered. He seemed surprised.

'Okay, either you like playing hard to get or guys are just blind' Matt said.

'I was probably hard to get' I shrugged. Matt was being really sweet.

'Tell me, I'm not blind am I?' He asked, 'Cuz I see the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, in my entire life'. He moved into kiss me, and, like any other person I would, I moved into it too.

We kissed.

'So, how many girls have you been with?' I asked, 'Not including me'.

'I think about four, either that or I just couldn't be bothered to remember it' Matt replied, 'I think I might've been about fourteen'. The irony of the fact that I was 15 and he was 16 was just not thought of at the time.

'I think I remember that day now' I said, Matt looked at me, he was thinking the same thing.

I got my phone out and looked at the photo A had attached to a text they had sent me about 5 minutes ago. 'That's in Maui, school trip in spring break?' I thought aloud.

'Yeah, I think so' Matt said slowly, 'Yeah' he repeated at a normal pace.

_Later:_

'Oh my gosh, what school did you go to?' Matt asked me.

'Texas High' I answered.

'I went there for a while' Matt nodded.

'So, that means that it was you and me in the photo' I sounded confused without meaning to.

'Yeah' He sounded astonished, 'But, how did A get this?'.

'I have no idea, they got my number cuz they stole Ali's diary, it had my number in it' I explained. I had glanced at the time on my phone, half ten, that meant I had another hour with Matt until my mom went all social worker on me; _WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, I WAS WORRIED SICK!,_ etc etc.

We sat in Matt's car for the next 45 minuted just talking about Texas, I was enjoying it up until a text from A turned up:

_Break up already, He saw the picture of you kissing another guy, geez, talk about slow!_

_-A_

It looks like A didn't get their way this time, Bingo!

**A/N Thanks for reading, R&R if you like it or want to improve it, thanks :-)**


	6. Sweet Little Lies

Sweet little Lies

'So, how are you and Matt doing?' Aria asked, I should've known she was going to ask this, she was single; she had called it off with Fitz. She didn't think it was right with him a teacher and her a student.

But the truth was about me and Matt was that we were still secretly dating, despite the fact that A had told us to, we staged a breakup and we only hang out at his house. But I was living a lie for the best.

'We aren't together anymore' I sighed as I looked out of the window and back at Aria.

'Why, what happened?' She sounded shocked.

'A didn't agree with it' I stated, 'Matt didn't want me to get hurt' I offered a distant smile.

'I guess that's sweet of him to think like that, we can be lonely together' she said as she shugged me. I couldn't believe how sympathetic she was being, I was lying to her. I thought I did a pretty good job, but I was lying to one of my best friends!

Me, Alison and Aria had just come back from school, it had finished an hour earlier because of the basketballl tournaments, we got frozen yoghurt and we had come onto the topic of nicknames.

'Lucas is Hermy' Alison nodded as she tasted her frozen yoghurt.

'I think Mona is crazy creepy, I haven't decided what she's more of' I said.

'Two faced' Aria said, 'Do we think Mellisa has something to do with the A team?' she asked.

Me and Alison were kinda shocked, Aria didn't seem convinced when Hanna had thought of the theory, obviously Spencer was against it, it was her sister we were talking about. So I could understand why.

'She does seem different, compared to how she was when A was only targeting me' Alison said.

'Or it might just be the fact she's 7 months pregnant, I prefer your theory' I confused myself 'We can't prove it to Spence, we don't have any evidence' I shrugged.

We walked into Alison's house, to find nothing unusual- just a picture of me and Alison on the floor burning. Jason had put it out before we got in, but the ends of the picture had been burnt to a crisp. We went upstairs to her room; everything was covered in stick it notes, with A written all over them. On her vanity mirror they had written:

_Matt is only as good as you liars, just because him and Alexis aren't together anymore, doesn't change a thing, watch it at Truth-Up! -A_

'Why didn't A use their brain and break into my place?' I asked myself, still speaking it.

Aria shrugged, 'What do they mean, Matt is only one of us now'.

'I guess he's just another one to blackmail, A blackmails us, so I guess it seems logical' I shrugged.

'What happened to you and Matt?' Alison asked me.

'We broke up, Matt didn't want me getting hurt' I replied.

'How sweet is that' Aria exclaimed.

'Yeah' She agreed.

'I take it you're still with Duncan' I guessed.

'Yeah' she said dreamily, 'I don't wanna brag' she looked at me.

'Don't worry, I still love Matt, he loves me, I think' I shrugged.

'True love never dies; I'm pretty sure that's a quote from somewhere' Aria thought.

'Where's Fitz when you need him' I said, 'You should know that, the amount of time you spent with him, Ar'.

At home I got really bored, I felt lonely, I wasn't home alone. Joe was doing his college work and I didn't wanna interrupt. I was daydreaming about Matt; the time when we can finally reveal ourselves, the time which is A free, clearly yet to come. I went to text Matt; to find he had texted me first:

How's Life?

Me:

OK I guess, I'm having a hard time lying to my best friends...

Matt:

It's only until the A thing clears up, and we're still together, it's not as bad as it could be.

Me:

I don't know how long that's gonna be though, I guess it's not as bad...

Matt:

Change of Subject: Noel and Mona!

Me:

Is he crazy, OMG, I know Noel is Noel. Wow, I did not see that coming..

Matt:

I still think it's creepy..

Me:

I'm never gonna see him like I used to, him and Mona, ewwwww!


	7. TruthUp Day Part 1

Truth-Up Day

This was not my favourite day at school throughout the year. This was supposed to demonstrate that keeping secrets is wrong, I don't get how cuz some secrets are better when they're not told. From what Hanna had told me, it's the most pointless thing in your entire school career, which clearly didn't sound fun!

All of my secrets are kept secret for a reason; they just aren't nice, or I get into a mess if I tell them. I haven't even told my parents them, that's rich for me cuz I tell them everything. My secrets are the whole A situation, being insecure and secretly dating Matt behind everybody's backs.

At Lunch:

'I can tell we're all looking forward to tonight' Spencer sighed as she picked at her salad.

'I'm not saying any of my secrets, they're safe between us' I said.

'Same' Alison agreed.

'I think our secrets break the scale of secrecy and size' Aria joked.

'I don't get why we have to stay in school, we spend long enough here as it is' Hanna exclaimed.

'OMG, big news' I exclaimed.

'What?' They all looked at me.

'Noel and Mona, Matt told me before we broke up' I said,

'Ew, that's horrible' Emily and Aria said.

Afterschool:

I was getting everything together for tonight, my clothes, hair things, makeup, perfume and my phone, all organised in a mini holdall. My mom gave me and Alison a ride up to school.

'I've now proven you look nice with no makeup' My mom smiled as she glanced at me and Alison through the mirror.

'Thanks' Alison smiled.

'I'm not wearing any cuz I won't have time to take it off' I stated.

Alison nodded, 'And I couldn't be bothered to put any back on after the shower'.

Mom pulled up outside, 'See you girls after the beach'.

'Yeah, thanks Marie' Alison said.

'Bye, Mom' I said.

'Bye Hon' She said.

We walked into the hall where all of the 10th graders lockers were, this would be where we would sleep tonight. Our entire year was here, and they didn't look too pleased about spending the night. The dreaded principal's voice came onto the speakers throughout the school, we all sighed:

_All outside doors have been locked, you are expected to stay until 9.30 tomorrow morning._

We all tried not to laugh, Alison looked at Noel, he looked at me. It was such a cheesy message, which was clearly aimed at the younger part of the school. We and the seniors were the mature ones. Unfortunately the message continued:

_Only two of the teachers have turned up. Miss Montgomery and Mr Fitz._

We all applauded.

_Which means that whilst one class is taking part in activities, the other years will be staying where you all currently are. Refreshments are available in the cafeteria. That's all._

We all started talking, seeing as we were the oldest ones we had about a three hour wait until we could do the actual truth-up thing. I was thinking about my situation with Matt, I was debating whether it should be kept a secret any longer. Sudden Realisation: It shouldn't.

'Talking about secrets, I should tell you' I sighed, 'Me and Matt never broke up, it was staged'.

'I knew something wasn't right' Aria smiled.

'Why didn't you say you were still with him?' Hanna wondered.

'A' Alison answered, 'I would've thought you guys would've figured that out'.

A silence. We were all thinking about different things; or maybe different thoughts about the same thing. Mona had been taken to a mental institution for some reason or another, we could practically say what we liked. Noel and Matt decided to join us, Alison couldn't help poking me when they did. I rolled my eyes at her.

'So, we heard the news with you and Mona' I smiled, Matt smiled at me and shook his head.

Noel looked at me, 'Entire story?' he offered.

'That would be good' Alison nodded.

'It was kinda real at the start, I realised that she didn't like any of you, judging by the fact she gives you the evils. Anyways, she started telling me to do stuff and I didn't' he looked at Aria, 'Hence the roof situation, I was gonna tell you but that Holden guy got in the way'.

'So, she used you, like Jenna did' Way for Spencer for dumbing it down.

'I got a bit shaky, grabbing my ankle was a bit wierd' Aria looked at him.

They were staring at eachother. AGAIN. Her and Noel had one of those on and off relationships, more love/hate than anything. They were clearly having a moment.

'Anyways, is it over?' I hoped.

'You think we would still be together, she's gone off to crazy land' Noel retorted, 'She accused me of flirting with you, Aria' She looked up, clearly not listening.

'No surprise' Emily muttered.

'This better not turn out like Halloween did' Noel joked. The last time we were all together overnight was back in October, that clearly was something that everyone dreaded thinking about.

'That morning after' Alison chuckled.

'That was NOT fun' I sighed.

'What happened?' Matt asked.

'We stayed at Lex's place that night, we came in at about 9am to get breakfast and hair irons, stuff like that' Alison said.

'I can't be trusted, for some reason' I added.

'We found all of our parents in the lounge talking with Lex's dad, the cops had told them what happened' Emily said.

'So I had the honors of telling them what happened' I sarcastically smiled.

'We looked like we had been dragged through a bush backwards' Aria laughed.

'We didn't look all that bad' Emily added.

'Then I had to explain what a plectrum was, it got stuck in the guitar' I sighed, 'So, like you do, you end up shaking it about to get it out' I shrugged.

'It was funny, you can't deny' Spencer added.

_Activity One: Fitz's Class_

'This part of Truth-Up is teaching you how secrets can make you feel and if you tell the truth' He said. 'So, um Happiness' he gestured, 'Ideas. anyone?' He asked.

Noel was first, 'Stalker free'.

A whole group of us started to snigger, all of us looking down at our feet, Noel hadn't got used to this whole A thing, but it did lighten the mood. Fitz gave us all a funny look

'Okay' he muttered.

'Care-free' Somebody else shouted.

'Positive' a girl shouted.

This went on and on, until somebody came to the door. It was a cop; typical, as if we hadn't seen enough of them already. Anyway, they came in and asked, 'Is Hanna Marin here?'.

'Yeah, what's it about?' she asked.

'Kate Randall' the cop replied.

'She nudged me, 'Come with' she asked, I nodded, glanced over at Matt and went with her.

We walked into the principal's office; except there was no principal, so I guess it was just an office. We saw Kate standing up straight; she looked like she was crying; though she might've already. Hanna walked over to her.

'What's wrong?' She asked, sounding shocked.

She tried to speak, feeling the lump in her throat; it wouldn't let her. She began to cry. Both me and Hanna went over to her and hugged her; to try to calm her down and stop her crying, it did seem to settle her.

'Do you know who A is?' Kate asked, tears still in and falling from her eyes. Hanna looked over at me.

I guess I had to do the talking.

'We don't know either, why do you ask?' I said

'Because' she hesitated as she wiped a tear from her cheek, 'They said that I'd better watch my back or I'd end up like Alison'.

Hanna grabbed her into a tight hug, 'Don't worry, if they even lay a finger on you they're dead'. Hanna didn't quite understand how Kate would end up like Ali, she wasn't dead, I understood because she and Jason had told me that A had wanted her dead.

We were walking back to the hall where all of the 10th graders were, we were with Kate for just over an hour, so all of the truth up activities were other. Thank God. Kate had stopped walking, so had Hanna.

I sensed a sister moment.

'We'll be over in a minute' Hanna said, I simply nodded.

I walked over by myself, laughing to myself and shaking my head. I sat down.

'What are you laughing about?' Spencer asked warily.

'Sister moments' I replied.

'So, was that fun?' I asked sarcastically.

Noel had this one, 'Nope, after you and Hanna left, everyone was just saying wierd and random stuff' he shrugged.

'It got wierd straight after you said stalker-free' I retorted, 'Rule one of the A code- never reveal anything'.

'No matter how relevant it is' Matt nodded.

'What was the Kate situation about?' Emily asked me.

'Sharades, one letter' I answered. They all got what I meant. A.


	8. TruthUp Day Part 2

_The morning after:_

Me and Kate were wide awake at 8am, everybody else was asleep in our kinda group. Noel and Matt never went back to the Lacrosse guys- apparently we're way more interesting. We checked ourselves out in our mirros to make sure we looked decent but not done. We both tried our best not to laugh; we did almost end up giggling at one point.

Alison, Emily, Noel and Matt were up next. We (well me) waved sarcastically because I knew it would make them laugh, it was now 8.30, we couldn't talk. IM was the next best thing.

_What time were u guys up -Noel_

_Eight- Me and Kate_

_It's tempting to wake the rest of them up- Alison_

_I know, but they all look so cute!- Me_

_You're only talking about Matt- Noel_

_Generally everyone actually- Me_

_Sure, if you wanna think that- Noel_

_I do - Me_

Matt was next to wake up, shortly followed by Hanna, Aria and Emily. We could all finally talk at a normal volume; a couple of other groups were awake too, the lacrosse guys were nowhere to be seen. They were most likely to be out on the field or the cafeteria.

'You look cute when you sleep' I smiled at Matt.

'So do you, I prefer it when you're awake' he shrugged.

Trust Hanna to change the subject, 'Where's Caleb?' as she looked around the hall.

'Well, A business I'm guessing' Spencer retorted, 'You really should tell him, Lex told Matt'.

'Yeah, only coz he was getting texts too, I have no idea how they got his number' I trailed off.

'But, the good things are that Mona was not here and nobody has A texts yet' Emily said happily.

We waited a while, so any A texts couldn't come through and jinx it. Em didn't jinx it.

'I will eventually, there's never a right time' Hanna shrugged

'So, how long should we wait until we wake everybody up?' Noel asked cheekily.

'Well, I have music we can use' I shrugged, 'We could accidentally play it' I smirked.

'I like that idea' Matt smiled.

Caleb came back from doing the A business, he wired up my phone to the speakers ready to wake everybody up from sleeping. This was gonna be good.

But it seemed that somebody was already to it; you can guess who, obviously A. They had blasted a song on throught the speakers throughout the school; Caleb quickly unwired my phone and we went back to where everybody else was. Music blasted through the speakers, none of us were happy.

'What the hell!' Hanna shouted, 'Why!'.

'I don't know, but it was A' I shouted back.

'What song is this?' Noel shouted.

'The swarm, by You Me At Six!' I shouted.

'How?' Emily shouted.

'I have a 19 year old brother, why would I not know!' I shouted, 'In case you're wondering Joe did NOT do this!'

Everybody had been woken up now, and they were NOT happy, to be honest we weren't either. The music was way too loud, we ended up covering our ears because it was that loud; well, me and the girls did, Matt and Noel were trying to turn it off. They had found some wire cutters from the woodshop class but they couldn't figure out where the source of music was coming from, which had become mildly irritating considering it was only them figuring it out.

'Hey Alexis' Matt shouted, 'Can you try and find where it's coming from!'.

'Yeah' I shouted back, 'Aria, come with me!'

'Yep, check out the classrooms!' She shouted.

'Check out the cafeteria too, nobody's gonna be in there!' Matt shouted to me, I nodded.

Me and Aria walked past the cafeteria but it was only the lunch ladies in there, so we decided to check some of the empty classrooms, but again, the majority of them were empty and were locked too. The few that were open had teachers in them.

We walked back to where the 10th graders were; the music still going but not as loud, so you could talk at a normal volume. 'Any luck?' Noel asked.

'Nope, they might be on the roof, but I don't fancy going up there' Aria replied.

'Well whoever it is, it looks like the principal's gonna deal with it' Matt assured as he came back to where all of our bags were.


	9. Missing

I had been texting Alison all morning whilst I was getting ready for school. School had seemed different since Truth-Up day; which was over a month ago.

The wierd thing about texting Alison was that she hadn't actually replied to any of my texts; which was extremely unusual because she was on a contract that had unlimited texts, her phone was always charged too so there was really no expections to not replying to texts unless she was in trouble.

I tried to avoid thinking about Alison and focused on curling my hair, I thought it looked reasonable compared to what it can look like. I jumped (not literally) downstairs, still thinking of what could be up with Alison, I put everything in my bag and I was out of the door. I guess that Ali was ill or had an emergency departure to Philly.

I walked by myself up to Hanna's, when she opened the door she asked:

'Where's Alison?'she asked as I walked into her house.

'I don't know, she wouldn't reply to texts this morning' I shrugged, 'I guess Philly or she's ill'.

I had to convince myself that everything was okay; meaning that there was no A involved, and Philly didn't have something to do with A. Hanna just sighed and carried on putting everything in her bag.

'It can't be that bad, if she was in trouble she would've at least told you' Hanna exclaimed. The thing that bothered us was that she had been missing for just over a month and nobody had seemed to notice asides from us. The cops were as helpful as a fish; they didn't seem to do anything, it only seems to take a death for them to get their act together.

_At school:_

'Any of you seen Ali?' Noel asked, his arm around Aria. They were dating, again.

'Nope, I was texting her all morning but didn't have one reply' I shrugged.

'Guys, look' Spencer ordered us, she moved the Rosewood times across and into the center of the cafeteria table. The headline article read : MISSING GIRL!

We all gasped; or at least looked shocked, Alison had been declared missing!

I grabbed the paper immediately and quickly read through the article, it included inside details of where she had last been seen and what school she attended- despite the fact that Rosewood High was the only high school in the area!

'Does Jason know?' Hanna asked.

'I have no idea, why do you expect me to know?' I replied.

'He's nextdoor' she shrugged.

'Wait' Matt looked over my shoulder, 'She's been missing since the day after the beach party'.

'Jason put the article in himself' I said to Hanna, 'So I think he knows'. My phone beeped, it wasn't A, I got it out.

'Oh my god' I muttered.

'What's up?' Matt asked me.

I looked at him as I showed the text, he gasped, 'Oh my god' he muttered.

What?' Noel asked.

'Alison, the text is from Alison' I said quietly.

'Are you sure?' he asked.

'Yeah, I haven't deleted her number, that's definately her' I replied. This teaxt definately sounded like something she would say:

_Don't worry honey, I'm not missing, I had to do a runner before A could catch up. I'm in Philadelphia, tell our group I'm okay. Watch your back, There's an entire team; but you were right about Mona being A. Gonna be back soon._

_-Ali_

'Is she okay?' Aria asked me.

'Yeah, she's fine, she said not to tell anyone else though' I replied and offered a confident smile.

_At Lunch:_

I had to re-organise everything in my bag so everything would fit, we had all managed to keep our mouths shut about Ali.

'Dude, how can you fit everything in your bag?' Spencer asked.

'First of all I'm not a dude, secondly half of it lives in my locker' I shrugged.

'Either that or it's a tardis' Spencer retorted.

'I know this day has been funny, but can you please stop insulting my bag and organisation skills' I said.

Matt turned up from Lacrosse.

'What?' He asked as he sat down and put his arm around me.

'Spencer's insulting my bag and my organisation skills' I said, 'Where's my Hi?' I said as he kissed me.

'Will that do?' he asked.

'I guess so' I smiled.

'Where's Noel?' Aria wondered aloud.

'Lacrosse, coach wanted to talk to him about something' Matt shrugged, 'He'll be back sooner or later'.

Aria nodded. It seemed empty now; meaning empty of people, it was only me, Spencer, Aria and now Matt. Emily had a swim practise, Hanna appeared to be more interested in Caleb and we all know about Alison

A/N So this chapter is where the drama of the story starts, if you did find this boring wait til I upload the next one; that's good. R&R, THANKS :-)


	10. Two can Keep Secrets if one is dead

Today was an ordinary day, well only as ordinary as it could get in Rosewood. Alison was still missing- I thought she was hiding in Philly like the text had said, but for all I know A could've got hold of her.

Everyday since then we have all pretended that she was on vacation- we just haven't been told when she was coming back. Life had been quiet, no one's taken a dig at us for being friends with her; they all thought it was wierd with no queen bee, even I did.

Me and Hanna walked into school, walking straight to our lockers everybody was silent. There was obviously some news that we haven't heard yet, we ALWAYS knew the news first-hand.

'Why's everyone so quiet?' Hanna asked quietly.

'Beats me' Emily shrugged.

'I know Ali's not here but this is creepy' I said, 'Wait, check the paper' I urged.

We all opened our lockers, the Rosewood Times fell out of all the lockers and fell straight to the floor. Attached to it was a post-it note that read:

_Best friend's gone bye bye bitches! -A_

On the front of the paper, the headline article read : _MISSING GIRL DEAD!_

A picture of Alison was plastered on the front page, I quickly picked up one of the papers and quickly read through the article, shocked at what I was reading, along with Hanna- With that, we rushed past everybody after slamming our lockers shut. We stopped at where Mona was standing.

'How many people do you have to kill before you're satisfied!' I screamed at her.

'I'd watch your back if I were you' She said in a patronising tone.

'Don't talk to me let that!' I shouted back, 'You have the nerves to call us bitches, when you're no better, just because you don't like somebody, you don't kill them! That's really shallow!'.

Mona just stood there, overwhelmed by what I was saying (or, rather shouting) to her about. Finally the bell went for first period.

'Also wierd enough to blackmail us and send threatening texts to us, that IS shallow!' Hanna added.

Matt was watching from a distance, this was a time when I needed someone like him to fall back on. The anger from inside of me had dissapeared from shouting at Mona, now I was just upset. I wanted to cry, staying strong didn't work.

Everyone was walking off to their classes now, my class had free lessons all morning; we usually headed out to the field. I just walked past everybody and headed straight for Matt, I needed him now. He had found out about Alison from everyone else in school, he had also heard what I had said to Mona; like I mentioned earlier. It felt assuring to know that he was there for me.

'It's okay' he murmured as he pulled me into a tight hug, I shut my eyes to try and stop the tears, but it didn't work.

'Tell me lies' I urged.

'Don't cry' He said.

'I can't help it, Ali's dead!' I carried on crying.

'Things like this happen' Matt said as he looked down at me, I still had tears in my eyes.

'Usually you know who killed them' I replied.

'Come on, let's get out to the field' He said as he put his arm around me,'We'll find things out eventually, I promise'.

We walked out of the building, Matt had made it his challenge to chear me up and try and make me laugh. He was making me smile and laugh at some points, but the mood had been changed as soon as we sat with everybody else.

'The article said Ali was last seen in the cemetery' Spencer informed us all.

'Way to change the mood' Hanna retorted.

'I am NOT going there- you can but I wanna stay safe' I looked at Spencer.

'We don't have to go there, I was just saying' Spencer smiled.

'It's only gonna creep you out at night' Matt shrugged, 'You're only gonna get answers during the night'.

'Do you know how wierd my dad's got since Halloween' I exclaimed, 'He would kick me out if I did something like that'.

'My dad would do that too' Aria shrugged, 'I guess that's me and Lex out'.

'We'll be there for Ali's funeral anyway' Emily said.

Ali's Funeral:

Nobody was looking forward to this; funerals weren't fun, saying that though, weddings aren't always fun either. We were looking at the bright side of things; I could wear my Halloween dress again.

The teachers had organised this quickly, it had been two days since we had found out the news, I would say that it was out of the blue as well, but Ali knew she was gonna be killed. A had warned her and kept the promise, they weren't kidding.

I was getting ready in my room with Hanna, we had become closer since Ali's disappearance. I was wearing my deep purple halloween dress and Hanna was wearing a deep blue bandage dress. My dad drove me and Hanna to the church; my mom couldn't get time off of work and my brother was suffocating in coursework for college. So it was only me and my dad. Nobody would talk in the car, but my dad being him couldn't help with break the silence.

'So you'll be at Aria's after this?' Dad asked.

'Yeah, we'll probably be there all afternoon' I shrugged as a smiled at him in the mirror. We had arrived outside the church, me and Hanna got out as my dad went to the parking lot.

'Hey Guys' Spencer said as she offered a weak smile.

'Halloween dress' Aria nodded.

'Yeah, good times with Ali' I replied, 'God, I sound so old'.

We walked into the front of the church.

Jason walked over to us, 'The priest won't turn up, so I guess we should start' he offered a weak smile, 'Do you wanna start with the talking and stuff?'.

'Yeah, I guess' I shrugged. Jason nodded, with that he walked up to the front.

'Thankyou for coming to my sister's funeral, it means a lot to my family' he cleared his throat, 'Unfortunately the priest hasn't turned up, so I guess we're gonna have to do this thing without them' he said, 'So, you girls wanna go first?' he looked at us. I nodded.

Hanna walked up first, my nerves were getting the better of me at the moment so she had offered to go first.

'I might not have said this enough to Alison- but she was a great friend, you could trust her with anything and you knew that, she might've had her own views, but you would know that she wouldn't judge you. That's sometimes hard to find in people' Hanna cleared her throat, 'We had some great times, some better than others, but it was always a great time no matter what. I will miss her, and I can't express enough that she was an amazing friend' She finished.

Oh geez, I was up next, somehow the nerves had melted away, I walked up to the front and looked up at everyone, aiming it mostly at my dad. He nodded, which gave me the confidence.

'I didn't really know Alison as well as other people did, but she was special' I gleamed, ' Special because she was the first person that had actually stopped and said hi to me at school when I first moved here, I did become friends with her because she made me feel like I could be a somebody, I soon realised that I could practically say anything and she wouldn't judge me. You don't get people like that these days, they're really hard to find' I glanced down at my shoes, 'I will always remember her, I'm still wonderstruck that she can't be here to hear these amazing things we're saying about her'.

I rapidly walked back down to my seat, I was shaking violently, not entirely whether I was red or not. Hanna smiled at me, and I smiled back as Aria, Spencer and Emily went up to the front together and simply said:

'We would come up separately,but you would hear the exact same things from all of us' Aria smiled.

'We just wanted to say that Ali was an amazing person and she will always live on in our memories' Spencer added.

'She'll be truely missed' Emily said.

_Alexis Dad's POV:_

The funeral was over now, I guess it was okay compared to other funerals I have been to and had turned out to be. Alexis isn't really one to stand up in crowds and talk about her dead best friends; but she did well, I was talking to Byron now.

'How's Alexis taking this?' he asked.

'Okay I guess, but I don't think she's taking well' I replied, 'She did lose one of her best friends'.

'Yeah, Aria's shur herself out from the rest of us, but if that's her way of getting over this whole thing, that's fine' Byron explained.

_Aria's house, Alexis POV:_

'I can tell you how much fun that wasn't' Hanna said as we all sat in Aria's room.

'Now I remember why I don't go to funerals' Aria sighed.

'It was Ali's, so we kinda had to go' I looked at Aria.

'I thought it was wierd with no priest' Spencer thought aloud.

Spencer was right, I was thinking it had something to do with a certain someone not wanting Ali to have a proper and official funeral. I didn't dare say anything though; it wasn't realy something to say after a funeral.

**A/N HOPE U LIKED IT, REMEMBER TO REVIEW**


	11. A Text That Changed Everything

_Telling the truth to the wrong person at the wrong time can get you into messy situations- messy situations and a hard life was the definition of Rosewood; that was a well known fact. If I told you any of my secrets; you wouldn't find A very far behind of you, ready to come back and bite you in the butt!_

_My reason for insecurity is simple, I have a dead best friend- who's death is still unsolved, her killer is most probably the one who's sending me threats, but you can never be sure about anything in this town._

_It was a Friday, the one thing that was on everyone's minds in Rosewood when we first woke up- THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY! _

_The excitement of the fact you didn't have to walk past a dead girl's locker for another two days, the excitement that you could do what you wanted. But today, it was the excitement (I guess?) of someone new moving in nextdoor._

_The joy of everybody who despises this family._

_Another DiLaurentis is in town._

I woke up suprisingly easily today; It never is that difficult, besides it's Friday today. The usual days of when Noel's hangouts slash parties are planned, Noel was followed by everyone desperate to be invited. I thought it was sad, but there we go.

Most people had adjusted to what everyone assumed as an easier life without Ali; I found it insulting but it was the ugly truth, Ali had made people's lives hell; they had dared the devil by raining on her parade. It wasn't much of an easier life for Me, the girls, Noel and Matt- we still had A, we would until we got closure about who murdered Ali.

Me and Matt walked hand in hand to my locker, I had some stuff to dump in there. A girl walked up to the locker nextdoor to me, which used to be Ali's, all of her things were still in there. I sighed and glanced at her, I looked away too quickly for her to notice. It might've been just me, but she looked strangely similar to Ali, I didn't say anything. Everybody thought me and the girls were taking Ali's death hard, so much so that we had been forced into therapy sessions. Sometimes I wasn't entirely happy with my parents!

I hated talking to strangers about my problems, it's none of their beeswax.

'Doing anything after school?' Matt asked me.

'Nothing apart from therapy' I sighed.

He knew how I felt about this idea, but he always tried to change my mind, 'Maybe it's a good idea' He shrugged, 'I know you still have A, but maybe you will find out who did it'.

I looked up at him. 'I doubt it'.

'Don't be negative, you will'.

The day had flown past, before we all knew it, we had therapy. I know how much we all enjoy that, Dr. Sullivan seems nice but you'd be surprised on how many people think you have major problems just because you have it.

But we do have major problems.

There was half an hour left in English; which was too long for Fitz to punish us, I mean there's no need for it, his failed relationship with Aria is his problem which shouldn't be taken out on us.

We had all managed to switch off, he just carried on talking, and talking. I got that bored I'd started looking at my nails; the key sign that shows you really are bored. An in-depth explanation about what happens in Senior Year is boring- not saying we wanted the day to end, who enjoys therapy?

I felt my phone go off in my pocket; I couldn't resist looking at it under the table, I was at the back of the class anyway, so screw the no phones policy. I took it out of my pocket:

MEET ME OUTSIDE CLASS IN 5, -VIVIEN.

First of all, who the heck is Vivien, one thought that had risen to my attention. I could now say that it wasn't Ali playing tricks on me. This was the text that could potentially change everything.

A dead girl can't mess with your head.

If it was A they would've said at the end, I didn't know whether to feel worried or not. I guess I was gonna see who this was; anything to get out of Fitz's most boring class ever.

I raised my hand.

'Yes, Alexis?' Fitz turned around.

'I need to go to the office, my mom's called' I lied.

'Go'.

I walked out of class, everybody turning their heads to see me walk out, I almost died from embarassment. This Vivien chick better have a decent explanation for this, not that I minded, well, that much.

I walked through the halls, eventually finding this chick.

'Who are you?' I asked her, she took her sunglasses off.

'Hey, Lex' She grinned.

'Oh my god. Aren't you supposed to be dead?' I wondered aloud. It might've sounded rude but it was true, I tended to speak my mind a lot of the time.

'Didn't you understand the text, I was okay' She smiled.

'Lately I don't know what to believe, A left a note saying it was you' I replied.

'Yeah' She attempted to laugh, 'A killed my sister instead' She said bluntly.

'Oh'.

'So, I'm moving back' She grinned, 'As Courtney, you did see me at my locker this morning' she informed me.

'Who else knows?' I asked.

'You and Jason' Ali replied.

'So, have I gotta keep quiet, or can I tell people?' I suggested.

Ali laughed, 'You can tell them, just don't make a big thing of it'.

'We can cancel therapy then' I gleamed, 'It really isn't fun'.

I was out of class for only 5 minutes, it seemed as if I was talking to Ali for half an hour. So back to the most boring lesson Fitz has ever taught. I walked out quickly, Aria shot a smile at me, she could tell that I'd lied to him. I sat down; and escorted myself back to Beauty land, examining my nails. I was thinking about what colour I should paint them, maybe bubblegum pink?

The bell went. I had just finished sending a mass text to everybody on my contacts, well friends anyway. They were all gobsmacked.

Matt sounded concerned, 'Babe, you sure somebody's just messing with you?'.

'Positive' I smiled, I lowered my voice, 'A killed Courtney by accident, but it's all good'.

'Well, good as it could get' He shrugged.

Ali was ALIVE!

* * *

**A/N Review! Means a lot xxx**


	12. If These Dolls Could Talk Part 1

Let me get a couple of things straight, Ali is not dead; her twin sister is. Mona is also blackmailing us, man we needed some explaining to do and some serious closure. But out of all people- A had the most explaining to do, they'd now sent us a package, it had arrived at Spencer's about 5 minutes ago.

"Should we open it?" Emily asked.

"If we do something will happen" Hanna stated.

"Yeah and if we don't something will too" I added, "We've got nothing left to lose".

"Alexis is right" Ali appeared through the door, "Spence just open it".

Spencer did as she was told, she found a pair of scissors from the kitchen and cut through the cellophane and cardboard, Ali (otherwise known as Courtney) watched cautiously , I folded my arms slowly –I really wasn't thinking the best with A, worried what A will throw at us this time.

Spencer flung the box open- there were 6 dolls, one for each of us.

"What the hell!" Hanna exclaimed.

"Okay A has officially creeped me out big time" Emily said worryingly.

"That happened ages ago" Spencer sighed awkwardly.

"Ooh, look a note" I retorted, I picked it up and felt like this was leading onto something big – as in something that'll lead us into the cops, as usual.

_If these dolls could talk, oh wait! They can darlings! Smart girls listen to their dollies- A_

"So A sent us this to remind us?" Aria asked, sounding confused, "Ok I officially hate life"

"Welcome to my world" Ali sighed.

"Okay, before we go suicidal" I began, "These dolls have recorded messages on them, so why don't we see whether they're as bad as we're making them sound?".

We each picked up our dolls; we were all reluctant to do this, what if A had planted a bomb in there? What if something was coming out to stab us to death? There were just too many what ifs that weren't that easy to cope with.

Hanna pulled the cord on hers: Wonder how you got rid of that weight, hefty?

Spencer pulled hers: The forbidden kiss.

I pulled mine: Little Miss insecure's gonna be in hospital.

Emily pulled hers: I'm running away to Texas forever.

Ali pulled hers: My sister's dead.

Aria: Better sort Mike out.

We all stood there wondering whether what we could say would be appropriate, in this type of situation we would just endlessly argue until the guys sorted it out, but this time we really couldn't say anything, A was out to get us.

I reached to the bottom of the box and found a business card from where A had got the dolls, the picture of the shop didn't look too bad – but you can never judge a book by its cover, meaning we had to go to wherever this place was.

"Brookhaven" I read out, "Looks like we're gonna have to take a trip there".

"I know where it is, I used to go there quite a lot when I was doing what I did before" Ali said it in this way in case A somehow knew what we were talking about, it wouldn't surprise me if they were hiding in the woods.

"Anyone oppose?" Spencer asked us all.

Emily stepped forward, "I have to help my mom pack for Texas" She said.

"Well I guess that leaves the five of us" Aria shrugged, "How long does it take to get there?".

"Half an hour" Ali shrugged, "It shuts at four so we can do it before it gets creepy".

"When should we go?" Hanna asked.

"Friday, we can get good cover then" I said.

At school during lunch:

"Can't wait til' Friday" I gleamed, full of sarcasm.

"It won't be as bad as you think" Ali said, "we can go back to mine after to get dinner".

"What makes you think that'll make it better?" Aria laughed.

"You're joking" Ali smiled.

"What's happening Friday?" Matt asked.

"We're going to Brookhaven to get some answers for A's latest gift to us" I said, showing him the picture of the dolls on my iPhone, "Little miss insecure gonna be in hospital" I mimicked in a high voice.

"It's not just you who is" Hanna said uncomfortably.

"So I'm basically another act of what you went through" I sighed, looking at the picture of dolls.

"Don't worry about that" Matt said, "For all you know it won't happen, A's probably just tryna scare you".

"Well it's working" I muttered.

"Trying not to think like that" Spencer said, "We'll go, chances are we won't find anything so we won't be there for an hour".

"Emily is so lucky" Hanna sighed, "Where is she anyways?".

"Swim practice?" Aria offered, we hadn't noticed that she wasn't here; we were so caught up in this Brookhaven situation though it was barely surprising.

"It's surprising you didn't get anything" I said to Matt and Noel, "You're targets too".

"But it's only us when we're with you" Noel said. All of our phones went off.

"Well" I said as I went onto my messages:

_Go to Brookhaven and you'll only find an unconscious girl on the way back –A Take a hint!_

I saw Matt's message as well:

_That girlfriend of yours better watch her step, no kiss bye-bye if she doesn't -A_


	13. If These Dolls Could Talk Part 2

If these dolls could talk part 2

We walked to the hotel, we needed to figure out the truth a little more; what we had found was difficult to believe or didn't match to what we already knew. We needed to find out who killed Ali's sister Courtney; everyone was being so sketchy about it. Mona was switching between The Radley and school, so I was reckoning whether it wasn't just her sending the texts, I had been conjuring up different theories, none of which made sense so far...

The hotel name didn't look very welcoming either- to make this experience even worse.

"Lost woods Resort" I read, "Great name for a hotel in the middle of nowhere".

"Resorts are supposed to be happy places" Hanna said in a daze, "Remind me why we're here again".

"To try and figure out why A's telling us to stay away from here" Spencer replied," They're hiding something that could reveal who murdered Courtney".

" You know, Spence" Ali began, "Considering it's my sister, it's kinda nice of you guys to help me and my family out" She smiled, "Considering how pleasant your dad is being at the moment".

"If we figure this out, we will find out who killed her and eventually find out who A is" Emily smiled.

"And hopefully have a senior year to remember; not to scar" Aria added.

" It's already congrats to us, we made it this far together, no deaths" I said, " Well real deaths" I looked at Ali.

" I had my reasons" Ali said, we reached the door- we seemed reluctant to go in, like, who would go and stay in a so called resort in the middle of nowhere? Nobody was the answer in case you didn't get that, I hope you did though.

"Okay, so we should go in, I'm starting to get creeped out here" I rubbed my arm, " And cold".

We all walked in and got a room, for some reason we couldn't get the second room, that made me think of a few things, I thought that when we talked about Courtney we should say Ali, seeing as A was gullible enough to not know they killed her instead of Ali. We all went along with the idea, I swore we had some sort of mind reading skill between us being the best of friends.

We were there for the entire night, we 'temporarily borrowed' the spare hotel key for the room next door, we walked in and saw the walls plastered with newspaper reports about when Ali was 'missing', the other deaths that had happened within the last 20 years or so, everything that could help us.

"This is so creepy" Hanna quivered, we had just found A's lair, in the middle of what seemed nowhere. This seemed totally A like if you ask me.

"One step closer to our aim" Spencer said in a daze, walking back to the door.

"Last one back gets to sleep on the floor" I said as we ran back into our room and locked the door, me and Aria returned to key to the desk. We slept good considering we had just found A's lair.

The next morning we got out of there quickly, we went to Aria's - that was where we were supposed to be, in the hope that none of our parents had contacted each other we walked straight up to Aria's room, we couldn't exactly talk about what had happened last night because Mike and Byron were home. We started talking about going to New York with our boyfriends.

"Next weekend then?" Hanna said as Mike walked past to go into his room. I was pretty sure he muttered "The power puff girls meet again".

"There's three power puff girls" Ali added, "Miscount much".

With everyone being home we were limited to what we could talk about, we needed to sort this doll situation out, but these dolls could talk, so we had to watch our step.


	14. I Can't Do This Anymore

I was doing my homework in my room, who knew Math could be so easy, I usually took hours doing this, so far it was 15 minutes on my watch, I had finished it just now, my phone went off.

_Homework won't get rid of me, my darling! -A_

What made A thin that I didn't already know this, I was just trying to get some more time to think about this situation more, I was certain that somebody had stumbled upon Ali's old diary and thought they could torture us with the secrets within.

We all had our different theories, but none of them seemed to compare to A, it was impossible to overestimate them as it was to underestimate them, I was now on my music homework - write a song about how you're feeling now.

Well, I could tell you how I feel and why, but I'd have to kill you, or rather get a little someone I know to do it for me without asking them, how lovely some people were with their random acts of kindness.

Another text:

_If you do what I tell you, I might let you off the hook a little sweetheart. You have to break Matt's heart, or tell Ella about Aria's little relationship with Ezra before Noel tells her himself, the clock's ticking honey -A_

What did Matt have to do with this? I hadn't told him anything apart from about A, only cuz he was getting texts too, but I couldn't tell Ella about Aria and Mr Fitz, I just couldn't do that because they were well and truly over, and Noel was sorta with Aria now.

I started writing a song, I felt it was appropriate for what I felt at the moment:

_Its hard to look outside my door  
With all the news reports and more  
Yet I will do my part and stay on alert  
For all the kids out there who are getting hurt  
It could have happened to me  
Can you make me believe  
This could have a happy end  
'Cause I am one of them_

I felt a good grade calling me...

Later, breaking up with Matt:

"A wants us to break up, I have to do it to get off their hook" I shrugged.

"Okay, consider us not together then" He said.

I was kind of shocked by his attitude about this situation, "Is that it then?".

"Look, I'm sorry if this feels weird for you, but if A wants us to break up we should in case something else happens" He said.

"Something's gunna happen anyway, I reckon that's why they sent me that text" I said, looking unhappy.

"Don't be sorry" Matt said as he took my hand, "If it means you're off the hook then that's a good thing" he smiled.

"I know, it's just this wasn't something I pictured myself doing" I sighed.

"I know, it'll get better" He smiled as he hugged me, we accidentally kissed too.

"That shouldn't of happened" I joked.

"A can't see us, they don't know where I live" he smiled as he kissed me again.

" Mmm" I agreed, " I should go, don't you dare delete my number".

"A beautiful girl like you, as if" He smiled as I walked out of the door.

My phone beeped from a text, several actually, I didn't check it until I got to the mall, I needed more makeup, my mascara was dead, as was my BB cream and primer, I also needed serum and heat protecting spray. So here I was.

I walked into Sephora and picked up the makeup, I picked up everything else too and bought it. I went into the bathroom to fix my hair; I put my hair right and got a text:

_Wow, you've done what I want for a change, you know you love me! -A Remember, don't go overboard on the face paint x_

I sighed, I put my phone away and walked into one of the shoe stores to pick up my vans, I now had 7 pairs; white, black, pink, blue, red, orange and purple. I was colorful, and I wasn't ashamed to admit that. I went into Starbucks and got a Refresha to wake me up a little, it seemed a breeze of what I had just done, or rather happen. I and Matt were no longer but he still kissed me, A was finally satisfied with me, I finally had a fine-ish life.

I walked home with everything; I had two bags to carry so I couldn't be lazy and ask my mom to pick me up. I was home in fifteen minutes, I got in and another meet the parents' session had taken place, except all of my friends were there too, the girls, Noel, Matt, Mike?

"Why?" I said as I dumped my bags down.

My dad held up the piece of paper with the song on it, "What's this?".

"Homework" I said slowly.

"Something's going on" He said.

"No" I replied, "You're trying to accuse me of something and I have no idea what it is" this was working so far, I was an expert at lying to my dad.

"You know what I'm accusing you of" He said.

I couldn't help laughing, "I seriously don't, and is this supposed to be another one of these moments where you're sending me mind messages?".

I felt everyone smirk, looking down at their feet. My dad got up, "It's not a mind message when you know what I'm on about".

"Can you just tell me why we've got another meet the parents' session?" I asked.

"Because there's something that you're not telling us" He said.

I felt I had to tell him, "Ali's death is still unsolved, we're thinking of different theories of how it could've happened if you must know". Wingin' it. Oh yeah.

"Why didn't you just say?" He asked.

"I didn't think I had to tell you everything I do" I crossed my arms, "Don't you trust me?".

We looked at each other for a while, "Okay" My mom stepped in, " I think that's enough, honey of course we trust you, it's just appearing difficult at the moment".

"You're not the one having to take it in as if it's as normal as Texas was" I said," I don't this is the correct time to be discussing this".

"Which is why we're going to stop this and sort this thing out once and for all" Mom said, " So, we thought of therapy".

We all shook our heads, "That didn't really work" Aria said.

"So we thought that maybe you should spend some time apart" Ella added," But you ended up needing each other more than ever".

I didn't know about this, well every detail, but when the first death in Rosewood took place, they were told to spend some time apart, and they ended being together to protect themselves.

"So, we came to a conclusion that you should all tell us where you're going at all times and how long you're all going to be out for" Matt's dad said.

I silently died inside, it was none of their business where we were going in our spare time, we were teens- it's what we did. But it seemed logical, so I decided to go along with it; I knew I was going to lie every time I went out though. _If at first you don't succeed, lie, lie again_.

" Okay, so" I began, "I'm gonna go to my room" I said slowly, I picked up all my bags and walked out of the room with Ali, the plan was for her to stay around later, but she was already here. When we got out to my room we carried on as if the conversation we'd just had didn't happen.

Once Ali had gone I let my mind wonder about doing my makeup, I found several ways to make it look like I wasn't wearing much- which was always good. But I was also thinking about whether there would be any way out of this mess, if something drastic happened maybe that could be the end of it

But I can't do this anymore.


	15. Asked You Once, Next Time It's Death

Standing in front of the salon mirror I would quite easily be able to recognise myself; the fake blonde with hair that is too high maintenance. Not for long though. I was about to change my hair to side bangs and no split ends.

I found life weird now because I know everything that I shouldn't –Mona is a part of A, I know why A is doing this to us too but if I told you I'd have to kill you, so I won't tell you for your own safety.

There goes half an inch of my hair, and there to replace was my side bangs that didn't need trimming. A general conversation took place with the hairdresser- she was best friends with my mom, the conversation was boring- but I couldn't exactly tell her my life was a living hell, instead it was replaced with the weather, school and my family.

After my hair was done I went to the mall to get some more hair products that I was in the process of killing already at home, split end remedies were my saviours! My phone must've beeped about 6 times.

_Text: A is for Alexis – A_

_Text: We could use brains like you honey –A_

_Text: Really wanna know why we do this?-A_

_Text: How many hair products will you use if you're wearing a black hoodie all the time? –A_

_Text: How much longer to I have to let my mind wonder on your hair Lex? – Hanna_

_Text: Gone out to work now honey, be home around 9pm – Mom x_

A was asking me to join their team – oh my god. In case you're wondering I'm not going to do this, but even if I was drunk and drugged up I wouldn't do it! I'm awesome like that not letting drugs and alcohol getting the better of me.

I sent a text to Hanna saying that we needed to talk as soon as possible, I needed to at least tell someone, and Hanna was probably the closest friend I had next to Aria and Ali. She got to see my new hair too – so there really was no excuse.

Five minutes later she turned up, "Okay that is some nice hair".

"Thanks, But I think there's something a little more important than my hair at the moment" I said.

"Well you're not pregnant" she said slowly, "So it has to be something A related".

"You're right about the pregnant idea" I said," But they just asked me to join the team".

"Oh my god" she muttered.

"Yeah eactly what I thought" I said.

"Well you're not going to" she said, piecing together the ideas in her head," So just carry on as normal while something will happen".

I well and truly hated Hanna's mind sometimes, she might not be the top student in Algebra, but she sure did know how to add together and find out the missing links in our situation.

The next day at school:

"You two are quiet" Spencer said, looking at me and Hanna.

"Well" Hanna sighed, "We had a fun Sunday".

"Yes we did" I said, looking at my phone reflection to see whether m hair looked okay.

"She has something to tell you all" Hanna blurted out.

"Cheers, Hanna" I sighed, all eyes were on me, especially Spencer. "Well you can all quit staring at me first" I said bitterly.

"You're not pregnant, are you?" Spencer asked, you would've thought that the brainy one would've known me not to be a slut.

"Excuse me?" Matt choked on his water.

"Yes Spencer" I retorted," I'm pregnant, the reason why I look just as skinny as I did yesterday".

Everyone managed to get my joke, they all said there with smirks on their faces, even Matt from when he almost died earlier. Spencer walked away after a while, she said something about chemistry extra credit.

Later I was with Matt, I didn't tell anyone about my big news, it was the end of the day too, so all I was focused on was brushing my hair and talking to Matt about Spencer's outburst at lunch.

"Seriously, she won't talk to me" I complained to Matt, "She's supposed to be the brains of the group".

"I'm sure she's just worried about how you're gonna cope with an addition to the family" He joked.

"Not funny" I said, turning around to him.

"Sorry" he said holding his hands up in surrender, "You're just as smart as she is".

"You had to explain to me several times why you draw triangles with things that are meant for circles" I said, "But if you wanna think that, and then fine".

"Maybe you should talk to her later" He offered.

"I will then" I said, she did have a ton of exams, so that was probably why she was so uptight. I did push her buttons at lunch today so it's probably my fault.

"Congrats on the news Alexis" Someone said.

I turned around," I'm not! Seriously?" I said as I slammed my locker shut, the bell went for the end of the day so I picked up my bag and started walking out of school at a quick pace.

"Wait up" Matt said as he put his phone away, he didn't notice I'd started walking so he was quite far behind me.

I carried on walking, not listening to the comments I heard from everyone I had walked past, when I got outside Matt grabbed my arm and stopped me, "Will you slow down?".

"Why? Did you not hear the comments, everyone thinks I am" I said

"You know it's not true" he said.

"Then why does everyone else think it is?" I asked.

"Rumours get around quick" he shrugged, he saw my expression and said, "Rumours that aren't true".

I was fed up now, Matt just wrapped his arms around me and stood there," I know I'm not entitled to know everything Lex, but you can at least talk to me about this".

I didn't want to talk about it though; I just wanted to stand there and be held by the only one who seemed to care about me, an A text.

_Asked you once, next time it's death -A_


	16. Only in a dream

So in the last 3 months we have found where A's lair is, I have been asked to join the A team and people also thought I was pregnant. Well this has gone well. But there's nothing like a movie night at Hanna's when it's just us two, I seriously had a craving for gold nails though.

"Why do I suddenly hate chick flicks?" Hanna asked, examining her freshly painted blue nails.

"Would you rather watch a horror movie?" I said, looking over at her.

"There's no need to watch one" Hanna said, "We are a horror movie".

The doorbell went, Hanna's mom shouted from upstairs "That'll be the food! Han!".

"Don't mind me, I got it!" She shouted back. I smirked as I got plates out on the table.

When she went to the door, I checked my phone to see that I had a message from Hanna that I never read; I ignored it and checked the time: 9pm. I was pretty sure this was a sleepover now; I had makeup and spare clothes with me so it was all good.

Hanna came back with the Chinese takeout, "What do we think, A surprise or not?"

"Don't hold your breath" I sighed as I helped her put the food on the table, there wasn't any surprises so we just ate, and the gossip that came along with it. Apparently I draw attention to myself.

Hanna was in fits of giggles, "Have you not seen the way those seniors look at you?", "Alexis I've never seen someone draw so much attention".

"Pardon me for becoming friends with you guys" I said, laughing too, "I can't help it if I'm gorgeous, thank my parents for that".

She shook her head, still laughing, "They're gonna be crushed when they see you're with Matt".

"Not my problem, can we please change the subject?" I asked, no longer able to breathe from so much laughing, I went onto Facebook on my laptop. I saw that I had been tagged in a load of things from staying afterschool for dance, _Alexis knows how to rock colour_ Aria posted with a picture of my colourful Aztec style top. I replied with a _cuz I'm awesome like that _

"Okay, if you could dye your hair any colour what would it be? I'd be a brunette with blue dip dye" Hanna said.

"I don't know I'd be like a red or something crazy like that" I shrugged.

"All about being unique I see" Hanna nodded.

"That's kinda impossible" I said, running my fingers through my hair, "I would probably do different colour dip dyes for summer vacation too".

"The pool would turn the green blonde" Hanna added, "Do people still think you're pregnant?".

"Probably" I shrugged, "Matt tried making light of it last week, but he would be part of it too if I was".

"You haven't gained any weight since then or looked ill all the time" Hanna said, "If I didn't know any better I would think that you aren't someone to do that kind of thing".

"And I'm not sixteen yet" I added, I paused for a second wondering what to say, "I think we should do these more often" I said as I picked up the box of rice.

"Definitely, I'm thinking that things only happen when we're all together or at least with Spencer".

"It makes you wonder" I laughed; I checked my phone to see a message from Matt:

Just found one of your guitar picks in my jacket, any idea how it got there?

I had to think for a second, that's when I remembered:

I was wearing it the other day; I must've put it in there by accident, sorry xxx

I got a reply almost instantly:

Don't worry about it. I was expecting to find my car keys, I'm pretty sure you have them everywhere xxx

I replied:

I casually leave them everywhere, sometimes on purpose; you know how I enjoy irritating people

He replied with the final text:

I'll be honest, it made me laugh. I'll see you tomorrow then xxx

I put my phone away as Hanna put another movie on: The Runaways. This wasn't much of a chick flick; more of a music and teen kinda genre, even though that doesn't exist.

The day after I left Hanna's after breakfast, I went via Sephora on the way back to get concealer, blusher and some hair products. When I came back home no one was there asides from me, just how I liked it, I had lunch and went back out to meet my boyfriend – I say Ha! To the seniors who were thinking I was single, hehehe.

It was still baking hot outside, so a jumpsuit and brogues did the job perfectly. I saw Matt immediately and smiled, I walked over to him and he noticed my happy mood.

"Someone's happy today" he smiled as he kissed my cheek.

"A hasn't bothered us for over a day, why wouldn't I be?" I smiled. Despite the fact we had found their lair they hadn't noticed we'd taken Ali's diary back, maybe they didn't need it anymore, maybe sending us death threats was more enjoyable for them.

"Maybe left you, but not me" He sighed as he showed me the message, it read:

Have you noticed how she spends more time with Hanna than you? Crap girlfriend if you ask me… Well there's plenty more girls around if you know what I'm getting at… -A

"You don't think that, right?" I asked, worried that Matt was reconsidering our relationship.

"No of course not" he replied, "But I'm pretty sure they really want you to join the team".

"I'm not doing that, they know that" I said, "I may as well prepare for my death" I added bluntly.

"Don't think like that" Matt said, "I don't think anyone will let that happen".

"Someone repeats something enough you start to think its true" I sighed, "A still thinks I'm pregnant too, so they must've been within earshot when I joked about it".

"There are a lot of people at school though, I gotta admit that Mona is getting creepier by the minute" he said.

"That's all I think about at the moment" I sighed, he wrapped his arms around me.

"This will be over" Matt said.

"If only in a dream" I sighed.

Happy ever after doesn't exist my lovely, looks like I've got some breaking up to do, sleep tight while you still can! -A


	17. Two Saved, Two Dead

We were pushing our luck just a bit; it wasn't our smartest idea going to one of Noel's parties again – he was reluctant to throw one himself. Which was totally not him; the inner party animal had escaped and possessed Sean. Someone who Hanna was not too fond of, the rest of us thought he was okay, but Matt and Noel were on the same basketball team as him so they thought he was more than okay.

Lucas managed to get my attention; he just kinda walked over to me and started talking about yearbook photos, but I couldn't hear him over the music so we moved further away from the party.

"Hanna said we should put snapshots of you playing your guitar" he said, "Isn't that supposed to be a secret kind of thing?"

"It's not something I wanna advertise, but you can do it if you want" I shrugged, "I'm not playing or singing in front of the school though".

"I can't put videos in the yearbook" he smiled, "But you don't need to".

The bushes rustled behind us; something told me that we weren't alone. A black hooded figure jumped out from behind a truck parked in the parking lot. Soon another joined and they had only one intention: pushing us to the edge of the cliff to what was literally certain or permanent paralysation of our spines.

"Okay now I'm worried" My voice full of paranoia, thinking that I was going to fall.

The taller hood swung for both me and Lucas, we ducked and jumped onto secure ground away from the edge of the cliff. The bushes rustled again, I glanced over and saw a blonde the same height as me. Hanna - she must've been looking for me, I guessed that my phone wasn't off silent yet.

"Where have you been?" She asked, not registering what was happening straight away until one swung a fist to her before she ducked. "Matt's being going crazy".

"Han, I'm a bit busy at the moment" I said, kicking one of them away so they fell on the ground, unfortunately getting up too.

She stuck her foot out so the other one could trip, "I realised you were busy, it's just you were gone for a while".

"Alexis? Hanna?" Matt said through the bushes, he came through and saw what was happening, "Oh my god".

"Noel's parties are a no go from now on unless they're inside" I said, kicking one of the hoods away.

"Well I found Alexis" Hanna said, getting herself off, away from the cliff.

"I noticed" Matt said, "Where did Lucas go?".

I looked around, I didn't realise that he'd gone, " He must've ran away" I shrugged, "Hopefully to the cops, Noel should really get better party venues".

"I know right" Hanna agreed, "This was not something I'd picture myself doing on a Friday night".

"Me neither" I said, running towards Matt, Hanna following straight behind me.

The hoods couldn't have realised that we were with Matt now because they were now fighting each other, it looked like some kind of Boomerang style fight; they kept on tripping each other up and not really achieving anything. It was thoroughly amusing.

They were like this for 15 minutes; it was the most funniest thing I had seen in a while. Though they noticed what they were doing after this time. They turned on me and Hanna again, clearly not seeing that Matt was still heard.

They neared closer to us so we were on the edge of the cliff, they were just about to push us off the cliff when Matt grabbed the both off us and got us back to where we were before. They both lost their balance, almost falling too

One of them held up for a little longer, their hood blew off from the wind coming to the edge of the cliff. I was standing there shaking from the shock. Matt put his arm around me because he sensed my feelings.

I didn't know why this person was here standing, "Oh my god" Matt exclaimed.

I bit my lip, Hanna was crushed. The girl with long, black hair, crimson lips and that familiar Juicy Couture perfume, always wearing that black kohl liner and thick mascara.

"Mona?" I questioned.

Hanna was about to crumble into tears, "Yes that's right" she snarled. As she finished her sentence she started losing her balance, it was a moment where I didn't know whether to help her or not. Matt said through his body language not to do anything, if I did help her she would've pushed me over the cliff.

Hanna ran forward and grabbed Mona's wrist, "HANNA WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Matt exclaimed.

"She just tried to kill us" I added.

Mona was still unbalanced, Hanna realised what she was doing and dropped her grip, "Goodbye Mona" she said quietly.

We watched as she fell deep into the darkness, we looked over the edge to find a limp and lifeless body. She was dead, as was the other guy who was helping her.

Well I have two less members in my torture team, or do I? Unfortunately that blasted boyfriend just had to save his charming girlfriend and Hanna, but I leave you with yet another question:

What happened to Lucas?

Sleep tight will you still can my lovelies! Mwah! -A

A/N: So that's it. I hope this chapter was written well, it would be helpful if you did leave a review if you read this and comment on how you thought it was, but thanks for reading anyways


	18. Surprise, Alexis!

A/N: Just to keep you readers reading I thought I'd escape the drama for a while and do an ordinary day.

I was pretty sure I had killed my hair, it was now poker straight but I knew my hair masque would have to revive me tonight. I had managed to make my hair look decent today; this had to be a new record.

When I came downstairs nobody was home; I was used to this because this was the way it had been for years, Joe was at college and my parents were working. When we got to school we had an assembly instead of first period – the school was experimenting with different times for assembly because it didn't work being at lunch. It seemed reasonable.

When it came to assembly we all sat in year groups, again how it had always been, when we sat down it took 15 minutes for the rest of the school to come in, so I found myself talking to everyone, none of us knew what it was about. We all hushed when we all saw Mr Masters, the head of PE at the front.

"It has come to my attention that, as a school we do not have any sport captains that can really advertise these sporting events" He said, professional and all, "Therefore the only sport events we do participate in is Basketball and soccer".

According to Hanna, and from what I gathered from Matt, Rosewood high had never had any form of sport captains, our school weren't really known for amazing sporting ability, when in actual fact we should've been.

I heard a few names be called out from the lower part of the school, I'd never heard of any of them because I didn't take any interest in the younger people. It wasn't until he read the names out in our year that I practically died.

"Noel Kahn and Alexis Alioto" He immediately looked up at me and laughed, everyone turned around and all eyes were on me. Aria was killing herself laughing; Matt was trying his best not to laugh with his arm still around me.

Noel spoke up, "I don't think she wanted that" he smiled.

"I'm really that obvious?" I said.

The whole school looked at us as if we were some inferior type of aliens, it was in effect our own joke because we were in his homeroom, I didn't even think I was good at sports, but apparently I was.

Um, well apparently I was a girl's sport captain for Junior Year, well I learnt something today, if you kill your hair you become a school representative. Mr Masters decided to stop there with the jokes because it was only us who would understand them. He asked us all to stand up so everybody knew who we all were, I stood up and then the end of the assembly came.

When it came to dismissal, it had to be grades at a times, seniors first, then in a descending order until the fresh mans were last to leave. I picked up my bag and looked at my phone, 5 new messages; all of which were from Ali – she was off sick and I had to fill her in on what had happened.

I found it extremely easy to text with only one hand, with the other holding Matt's I thanked the lord for predictive text. I was thinking about calling her later cuz that would take so little effort, Matt managed to grab my attention from the world of texting.

"Your phone went off quite a few times "He smiled; his arm swung around my shoulders and pulled me closer.

"Only Courtney, nothing miraculous" I said, still wary of the fact that no one knew Ali's secret.

"I'm surprised you didn't hear it" he said, "Maybe the aftershock of a new rep".

"I didn't want it" I said, "I can't throw to save my life and I'm just the worst player ever".

"You're negative way too often" He said as we reached the cafeteria, "And compared to every other girl you probably stand out".

I gave him a confused look so he dropped the conversation. Things were kinda awkward between us, so my phone decided to go off at the right time, from mom:

You haven't by any chance seen Joe's chemistry book, he needs on tomorrow xxx

I couldn't help laughing, "What's up?" Matt asked.

"I have Joe's chemistry book" I said, "He knows I do".

"Your mom's going crazy isn't she?" He smiled.

"What makes it even funnier is that he has my book" I smiled, Matt smiled too as we found the others.

When we sat down with the others, me and the girls started talking about a sleepover at Spencer's whilst the guys were talking about a basketball game sometime soon, I had Joe's book right in front of me now to see whether what he was doing had only relation to what I was doing.

My phone started ringing when we all joined together to discuss how pointless it was going to school for a half day. It woke everyone up.

Rule number one of the teen girl cell phone: never leave your phone on loud or else Ke$ha will wake everybody with the introduction of Party at a Rich Dude's House.

It was Joe, "Why hello book stealer" I smiled.

"Could say the same about you, anyways you do have it don't you?" He asked, "I think mom's ready to pass out, she's just turned the entire house upside down".

"After getting it out in the lesson, yes to answer your question" I said, "Why do I get the feeling that you're out with the people you call friends?".

"Distant laughing? Imitations of you? I have no idea" he said.

"Thanks for changing my ringtone" I said, "If at first you don't succeed, get your ever charming brother to fix your phone and change the ringtone".

Spencer started laughing; it went around like a Mexican wave cuz it felt like everybody was listening to the conversation now, or at least listening to me.

"Well you should count yourself lucky I didn't send a few texts around" he joked.

"You do that and you'll end up with no hands and several things going missing" I said sternly.

"Just kidding, anyways you pick up your phone now so you may as well thank me" he said, there was the jerk seeping through my brother.

"Thanks for messing with my phone" I said as I hung up.

Spencer finally calmed down, "Sum you and Joe up in one word" she said, thinking, "No I can't".

"Welcome to my special family" I sighed as I checked whether he had sent any texts.


	19. You're a Killer, and I Hate You!

AT&T wouldn't send any texts to and from any phone supported by the network throughout Pennsylvania. This was extremely irritating when there were several teen girls throughout the state that needed to text to survive – including myself.

This was a catastrophe because AT&T supported pretty much every single cell in the state; we just don't have Verizon, no question. We just don't. This meant I had no texts to send my friends and family.

There was one advantage to this though; A could not contact us in any way because of everyone using this network, so our charming blackmailer/stalker had to find something else to do while they fixed whatever the problem was.

Moving on; things had been quiet lately, no drama at Noel's parties, no nothing. 'Ali's' death was still unsolved and the cops had finally taken some action and questioned literally everyone – I'm not kidding, everyone who had even heard of the name DiLaurentis was questioned, a little extreme but I guess they were doing their job.

So this meant that I had been questioned, for a second time since the death, one of the cops decided to accuse me of being a killer or at least a relation to the death. I will admit I kinda lost it….

_I had to stop myself from telling them it wasn't Ali that was dead. At the moment I was more concerned about whether I was going to be arrested for murder._

"_Do I really look like a killer?" I asked, I was disgusted at what he was suggesting._

"_It wouldn't make a difference whether I answer that" He said, "A lot of people ask that same question and they throw us off the scent"._

"_Ali was my best friend, I would never even dream of doing that" I said, making myself sound upset._

_The other cop didn't look that much older than me, or at least didn't look it but I wasn't going to say that. He was definitely against this other cop; I was more than certain he didn't by his way into his job._

"_She isn't showing any signs of denial" he said, "It doesn't make sense why she would kill someone, especially if they were best friends" . I knew he was siding with me. _

"_Can you prove that you were friends?" Meanie asked._

_I got my phone out my pocket and went onto the messages saved in a folder that was with Ali's old messages with her old phone. But this was a secret so I trust you all in keeping it. I passed the phone over, "I only ever knew Ali DiLaurentis, which should prove everything"._

"_Why haven't you deleted them?" Meanie asked._

"_I didn't think I had to, I thought she could at least live in within my memories" I replied._

"_Why do you have passwords and private folders?" The nice one asked._

"_I have a cousin who is capable of a lot of things" I replied, "I don't want her reading out my texts"._

"_So you're hiding something?" Meanie asked._

"_No I just think I'm entitled to some privacy, if you must know they're with my boyfriend" I said._

_I could tell the mean one was having a hard time believing me, I was telling the truth- they were conversations we'd had since we first started dating after Noel's Halloween party. I wasn't holding any secrets with him; I simply thought I deserved some privacy._

"_I'm telling the truth" I said, "If you really need to you can look at them in case you don't believe me". I would think there be slight invasion of privacy, but it was a cop._

"_I don't think that's necessary" Nice cop said, handing my phone back, "You can go now"._

"_Thanks" I said as I picked my purse up._

_End of flashback_

So seeing as I couldn't text anyone I was either calling or face timing everyone- well only Matt at the moment but you get what I mean, don't you?

"They're only doing their job, Lex" Matt said, I knew what he was trying to do, I wasn't exactly happy with the way things went though.

"I know but it's not exactly nice being accused of killing your best friend" I said, getting an eyelash back in place.

"You're capable of a lot of things, but not killing somebody" he said, "And you aren't much of a fantastic liar".

"Hey" I pretended to sound offended, "This other cop knew I wasn't lying cuz I wasn't in denial. And besides I can lie to strangers".

"Oh I must have the wrong number then, I want my girlfriend on the other end" Matt joked, I laughed too, "I know everything about you, that's why".

"Okay so I can't lie to my friends or boyfriend, I can live with that" I said, "One of them asked whether I was hiding something in our texts".

He laughed, "Probably would've accused you of even more than a murder".

"They can't arrest me out of all people, there are tonnes of people who do worse than me" I said, "Underage sex is a total no in my life".

"Maybe the youngest but I reckon you don't lack common sense" Matt said. I heard Matt's dad in the background, my dad too.

"AT&T is up again" we both said at the same time, resulting in laughing.

"I guess I can text you then" Matt said, "Have fun at Spencer's".

"I will" I said, "Have fun dating your basketball".

"You're unbelievable" Matt laughed.

"I like to joke" I grinned to myself, "Text me later".

"I will, oh and my basketball has a great personality" he laughed.

"Sure, I bet it can't do half the things you and me do" I said, "That sounded wrong".

"Maybe wrong but true" he said, "Two things you both have in common – feelings".

"Dating out of pity" I joked, "You're never forgetting you have me or replacing me".

"Nothing's better than you, you know that" Matt said.

"You read me like a book" I sighed, "I better go now".

"Extended bye" he said, "See you later".

"Love you" I said.

"Love you too" he said. I hung up and did a victory dance down to my room, I could finally text! I packed my things in a bag; it literally was a Mary Poppins bag, I managed to fit everything in my beloved blue Balenciaga.

When I got there, Ella had just pulled out from Spencer's driveway; she smiled at us both as we walked to her door. I had driven here myself, I finally had a car; my beautiful late Christmas/birthday present: Audi A4 convertibles were awesome. Today was weird because I was usually the last to turn up, me and Aria were about 15 minutes early.

Spencer opened her door, "Hey".

She hugged the both of us, "I'm early for a change" I gleamed.

"Yeah I noticed, you're feeling okay, right?" She joked.

Aria smiled, "AT&T are back up so she must be".

"I had like an hour phone call with Matt earlier, probably why" I said as she invited us in, "I might've done a victory dance down to my room" I shrugged as if it was nothing.

"Well seeing as you admitted I will too" Aria smiled, "My phone wouldn't call either".

"That makes us sound lucky" Spencer smiled at us both. Soon, Ali, Hanna and Emily showed up so the awkwardness could melt away from us. We all went upstairs to put our bags in Spencer's room. We had ordered a takeout and to pass the time we were just talking upstairs.

"I can believe Mona's gone" Hanna sighed quietly.

"I know, I guess people can surprise you" I said.

"But we are that much closer to finding everything out, she hasn't shown up so I guess she's" Spencer trailed of, clearly not wanting to advertise Mona's status at the moment.

"All we need to do now is find out who her sidekick was" Aria said.

"Which we aren't going to discuss anymore cuz we are going to have a great time tonight" Our Ali, still disguised as Courtney said.

We all heard a giggle from downstairs, we were all sure that it was Mellisa because Spencer's parents were still out of town. I knew that Spencer was sure it was her too, we also heard a guy downstairs too, which was clearly not Ian. Even though he had been missing the cops dismissed the case as him committing suicide, but we had seen him since then when Mellisa was out. He told us that he was in Canada visiting family.

"You don't think Mellisa's cheating do you?" Hanna asked warily, clearly against the idea herself, but someone had to ask it.

"No" Spencer stated bluntly, "She wouldn't be pregnant if she didn't love him".

"The food's here" Emily said, looking at the text from the place, "Well soon anyways".

"A perfect excuse to see what's going on" I said, "Come on".

We walked downstairs, Spencer and I walked to the door and grabbed the food and paying the delivery guy, but the cops turned up. We had a week without them and then suddenly they came back, argh!

"What's going on?" Spencer's sister asked, confused as a cop was taking the guy that she was with away.

"We came down cuz the food was here" Spencer answered, "But can someone explain?".

The nice cop I had the other day questioning me stepped forwards, "Well ladies, we've received information that this man is in possession of the weapon that was used to kill Alison DiLaurentis".

"There's also a missing page in the autopsy" The other cop said, who was nice too. "The page where it states what weapon was used, the hospital alerted us".

"Spence I'm going upstairs" Mellisa sighed.

"How did you know he was here?" I asked.

"Anonymous caller, and the fact his GPS was still on, Mr Reynolds" The older guy said, "You've lost your job".

So he was a cop who killed Courtney? Stupid much.

"Anyways, sorry for disturbing your night ladies" The nice one said. They took Garrett away and we carried on with the night. Me and Spencer carried on unpacking the food and getting drinks.

"Well that was unexpected" Ali said, she was doing the drinks.

"I know right, but I guess it means we're closer to finding everything out" it bought a smile to her face, as well as mine.

"That's how we roll" I said, putting on some music through the iPod docking station.

"I swear music has possessed you" Hanna laughed.

"It's getting me somewhere" I shrugged, "It could be a career choice, and if you knew what we were doing at school you would love it just as much as I do".

"I have to agree with her on that note" Aria smiled, "What Movie?".

We all thought for a second, a bunch of ums and thinking expressions were exchanged until we all agreed on Mean Girls and Mean Girls 2. For the night we watched those two, we mainly just talked about random things and doing everything possible to avoid what had just happened. Garret Reynolds was a killer and I hate him!

One step closer to closure?

A/N: Incredibly long chapter, but thanks for reading, and sorry it took o long to upload x


	20. As Freakishly Normal as Rosewood gets

Oh the joy of not having to dye my hair anymore; I totally mean this, all I needed was lightening shampoo and that was my hair sorted for the entire year. I loved the simplest of all simple lives; completely what I'm not but a girl can dream.

School again today where I go back with a broken wrist. Again.

The school rules said that with a minor injury you should still participate in sporting activities because it's good to exercise, especially the part or thing that's wrong. Now my school clearly don't know how painful this can be, alas, I shall not be doing PE because my wrist is killing me. I don't care what the school has to say.

I can just about manage holding my mascara without dropping it, let alone holding a pen – which is all good cuz I'm right handed, so I can still write for my other classes. I had dance theory today so I didn't have to miss out on my favourite lesson.

I still don't understand how I managed to break it, I think I got in the way of something; I was too busy getting myself out of the way of a falling tree, as Spencer and Ali claimed that there was a heart around Courtney and Ian and they managed to show me just before the tree was cut.

So now they're feeling guilty as ever that it was their fault, I've told them too many times that it was just a coincidence that I happened to be under the tree because it was so quiet.

"Alexis that was not a coincidence" Spencer said as she put some book away that must've killed her arm, oh my wording sometimes.

"Well I'm not stuck in hospital this time" I snapped, "And quit feeling guilty, it's not your fault".

"Whatever" Ali said as she was correcting my makeup before Matt saw me, she was shocked at how easy I had found it to do my makeup this morning, except I hadn't done my lips properly because I couldn't do lip liner with one hand.

Once she had fixed it, I applied lip cote over the top so Matt wouldn't end up with it on his face, "If I struggled with my makeup, how the hell am I supposed to do PE today?".

"We're all skipping, I think" Ali said, "Don't we have that English Mock with Fitz?".

I groaned, "I can imagine the excruciating pa-""Ow!" I winced at the pain shooting across my lower arm, "I don't think I'll get very far".

Spencer nodded; "I think that's after 3rd period though, so I guess we might manage to revise instead" she shrugged.

"Can't we treat it as optional, I'm pretty sure Mr Masters won't let me do it if I'm like this" I said, I really did like the outcomes of having head of PE as a homeroom teacher sometimes.

"You are sports captain too" Ali grinned.

"Thanks for reminding me" I sighed, I wasn't really serving any purpose whatsoever, it was Noel who was sporty, speaking of the devil turning up with my boyfriend, as I stood up Matt took my unbroken hand.

"No PE for you then" he smiled as he kissed me.

"Not a chance, I can't even move it" I said, looking down at my wrist, I even managed to keep the same nail wraps on for three weeks, gotta love the Aztec print.

I had since changed my ringtone, so it was only standing in the dark, a subtle and totally not a Ke$ha song, so it didn't matter if someone accidentally rung me, it happened to be an unknown number, so I cancelled it.

When we all went for our lessons, me and Hanna almost reached second period when the PE teacher stopped us, unfortunately it wasn't my homeroom teacher. We tried to carry on walking but she stopped us.

"You girls missed PE today" she said, the supply wasn't really fond of us that much, but you could tell that already, couldn't you?

"I had an exam" Hanna said, this wasn't a lie, she had a health and social mock, I did too- thankfully it was on laptops so I didn't die.

"Do you really expect me to do it with a broken wrist?" I asked, "I can barely move it".

"How did you manage makeup then?" she asked.

"I did it" Hanna said.

"I'll see you both in detention this week" she said as she wrote out two forms and gave them to us.

"I have a doctor's note" I said.

"Watch that mouth of yours Ms Alioto or it'll be two weeks" she warned, I sighed.

"Fine" I grumbled, I was not happy with this, sacrificing my spare time for school was not on my list of things to do.

She said something under her breath and walked away, "Okay, I guess we have detention".

I sighed, "I guess we do". This was going to be interesting.

Now we were stuck in English with the teacher that went by as a codename: Fitz, not a very good one, I know, but we weren't too fond of him, no matter whether Aria did try and speak things over with him or not, he still was horrible.

With the exam, there came an extremely boring lecture about what we needed to succeed in life, I couldn't imagine how I needed all this higher stuff to become a dancer, I was getting decent grades in everything but apparently decent wasn't good enough.

Last period was history, I enjoyed this lesson, I loved it, you could say. Not today. The witch that gave me detention for PE was covering the lesson. We all managed to 'be late' for the lesson so we only had half an hour of her.

I learnt something new today; it's illegal to smile at your boyfriend, so Matt got detention. She was about to give me double detention, but the bell of freedom saved me.

At the end of the lesson, we all walked to detention. Our sighs of relief were phenomenal when we saw Mr Masters covering detentions. He thought we were lost puppies.

"Do I see Alexis in detention?" He asked, "How?".

"It's like freaking Nazi Germany in that woman's class, you can't smile, you can't apologise" I exclaimed.

"Well said Lex" Hanna laughed.

"You didn't do PE, okay just don't do it again" He looked tired and fed up, "I know you're a good student Alexis, I don't think she'll be coming back to cover again".

Just our luck, the teacher walked in the room where the detentions were and it turned out that she made most of them happen which was no surprise to me. Hanna had had enough as well so she was ready to leave, but she had to make awkward conversation so it could confuse this sub.

"You know, Ms Alioto just doesn't flow" she said.

"Cheers Hanna, you know I was born with that name" I said, "My mom's maiden name is more confusing I can't even remember what it is". Matt was now standing behind me with his arms over my shoulders; he was weirded out by the idea as well.

We were told we could go; we were starting to walk out of the class when Hanna came up with another bright idea.

"Mrs Ledford would be the best name in the world" Hanna said skipping out of the doorway.

Matt's arms were still around me, "So if I'm not mistaken Hanna, you should be Rivers by now seeing as you've been dating Caleb longer than Me and Alexis have been together" he said.

"Oooooh Hanna he got you there" I laughed, "Love this guy so much" I said as we kissed.

"Ugh, get a room" Hanna screwed her face up.

"Well if we're married is gonna be a pretty bad one if we don't at least kiss" I said.

When we got outside it looked it was going to rain, and out of the kindness of Matt's heart Hanna came home with us, we dropped the idea of me and Matt being married and moved onto the fashion show.

"I think there are a lot of dresses that she wants to be worn at the end for a tribute" Hanna said.

"I reckon Courtney will wear one for prom this year" I said, "I know I would if I had that many to choose from".


	21. Digging Up a Dead Girl's Grave

My wrist had healed over the past six weeks, so that meant another six weeks had passed since one of our main pieces of evidence that proved that we haven't killed Courtney has been missing. For all we know it could've been used as firewood or maybe it was crushed to make sawdust? None of us know.

Currently Matt was out of town, he didn't exactly define why he was leaving but he would be gone for a good three weeks, I think it was a family affair… anyways it basically meant that I was boyfriendless until he returned.

Since Matt left, Courtney's grave had been dug up and all of the pieces that we had put in the casket back when we thought it was actually Ali - yep another shocker. The cops needed it to find out fingerprints or something like that, of course not admitting that the Rosewood cops are anything spectacular because I'd be telling a very, very big lie if that was so.

It wasn't always that I participated with the cops, but I thought it was incredibly disrespectful to dig up somebody's grave; I mean who would want to see the sight of a decaying body that's been like that for at least 6 months now, definitely not this girl here.

Since early this afternoon Jason and I had been trying to break the ice on where these things would be that had gone missing since the casket had gone missing, and since Jason was also a victim of A, I saw no reason against not trying.

Currently we were in some antique shop, according to the owner many things that were in here had some traces of being quite a few years old and possibly had some sentimental value, he didn't seem very enthusiastic when he told us about it, but I guess he doesn't get that many customers to this outdated cave that he calls a store.

"Are you sure it's hers?" Jason asked, we had stumbled upon an anklet

"Positive, it was the first thing I saw when I met her" I said, I quietened my voice, "Ali was jealous of this".

"How can this be used as evidence though, it's just what you see here" he shrugged, "That just proves that they both argued over it".

"This has to be it, unless anything else here comes in any use then this is what A wants" I said, "We could spend forever trying to look for something that's right in front of us".

"Wait a second" he said, pulling me to the side of the store.

"What?" I asked.

"Pretty much all of her things from that box was put in her casket, so surely if it's been dug up then all of the things must be at least around town" Jason said.

"Okay, so do we turn it into the cops?" I asked, "They'll just accuse me of something again".

"We can't just leave them here" he said.

"I'll get them if we find them all" I said, "I remember exactly what was in there, She put in that herself".

"Should I find it creepy you know all of it?" he asked.

"Yes, I had way too much spare time" I smiled, "But then again, where would you be without it?".

"You're so manipulative" he said.

"It's a gift" I smiled, I found nothing else; "I think that's it".

I bought the anklet and we headed out to another thrift store, we were going through what else was on the list of things in the casket. We ended up at another thrift store, ironic I know.

"A must think I'm an idiot" I sighed as I picked up a bunch of things, none of which were any help.

"Maybe that was the only one" Jason said.

"Okay well maybe that brain of theirs actually contains cells" I sighed as I looked at my phone, no messages from Matt – sad face .

"Some of them might have something on them "Jason shrugged.

"Keep talking" I said, he was obviously thinking he would be getting somewhere.

"Maybe there's blood on it, I can't guarantee them having the brains to remove their DNA but the rest of the things might have been cleaned or something".

We must've spent the next hour finding things, but only found another copy of the same anklet we picked up earlier. "This has to be some kind of joke" I muttered studying the piece of jewellery.

"I can tell that's a fake" He said, "She never stopped expressing how much she hated red" he averted his eyes back to the anklet; there was red stones on it.

"You know for a brother you seem to know a lot about her" I said, "Even Joe doesn't know what I hate, apart from know-it-all's".

"So Spencer?" He laughed.

"Spencer's actually nice once you get to know her" I said with a knowing look, "You know someone's probably gonna use that against you, with you two being related and all that", "And when I say know-it-all's I mean people that are stuck up and show off".

After yet another hour we decided to call it a day because it was getting us nowhere travelling around Rosewood like beggars. I got a text from my mom saying to go to the King James mall, when my dad and Joe were out of town me and my mom tended to have a good weekend together, like going shopping and all girly things like that, I liked it personally.

When I got there she was standing outside the store that I loathed the most since now having a boyfriend for 4 months.

Hollister.

Hollister, yep.

This was where all of the hot guys worked in Rosewood, and I used to love that store until me and Ali went in there one day that I do not want to recount, if you want to know the basics it turned out that we knew all of them, well Joe and Jason knew a few of them.

This was the way that Hollister worked; girls said they liked it cuz of the hot guys, guys said they enjoyed it as there were girls. Sad I know but wouldn't work be boring without some eye candy?


	22. It's Hard To Look Outside My Door

"Dude, temple run again" Spencer rolled her eyes.

"I'm not a guy genius" I rolled my eyes back at her in a cocky manor, looking at her as if she shouldn't expect anything more, "I don't have any homework to do".

"Hey Lex, you done that chemistry homework?" Aria asked.

"Yep, I haven't finished it though" I said passing my book to her.

"I swear I say I'll be your best friend way too often" Aria said as I watched her copy my homework for the millionth time this year, "Free periods are too boring".

"I was thinking about coming to dance the week we come back" I said.

"Yeah, I'll probably do that too" She smiled.

"So, Matt taking you anywhere glamorous next week?" Hanna asked.

"I don't think so" I shrugged, glancing over at him.

"Oh come on, he must do that sort of thing a lot" Hanna grinned as she poked my arm.

The room went quiet when she said this, we couldn't help laughing and laughing at her for being such a douchebag.

"God Hanna" I smirked, "Calling me loud, when you clearly have an issue with lacking an inside voice".

"Everyone probably got the wrong idea with that "Aria said breezily, "You still doing that history assignment?".

"Yeah, I know what to write I just can't do it" I sighed, "Can I just say Hitler started the war cuz he was an idiot?".

"Just do it on Friday" she shrugged.

"I give up" I said, "I've done the majority of it".

I got that sick feeling I'd been experiencing for about a week now, I clenched my stomach and winced from the pain. Aria and Hanna went to the printer to get some stuff they printed so I was left to be the loner that I am.

Matt came over to me because he was left alone too, I was saving my history when a pair of strong hands started massaging my shoulders that I didn't even realise were tense. It honestly felt good.

"What's this?" he asked.

"History assignment I cannot do for the life of me" I answered, "I refuse to do anything more".

"Looks like you spelt your name wrong too" he pointed out.

"Kidding me" I breathed sharply as I read it, yep. "Just when Hanna thinks I suit Ledford more".

"Aloito" he read out, "You always said you wanna be different".

"Leave me alone" I said, "I'm tired and I feel like I'm gonna puke".

"I was putting it off lightly" he said as he sat down next to me, "Did you eat something?"

"Dr Ledford to the rescue" I joked, "I've been feeling like it for a week now", "Maybe its cuz its hot".

"Well you are wearing a scarf" he said as he tugged at it slightly on the tassles.

"If I take it off I'll look boring" I pouted, he laughed as he kissed me.

"So what's this history thing about?" Matt asked.

"Which idiot started world war 2" I said, " It's too open ended though, I'm so tempted to just say that Hitler started the war cuz he's an idiot".

"As long as you were expecting no more than a big, fat F" he said, he read through what I typed, "This is good, but also the reason why I don't do this lesson".

"You know I have OCD though" I said, "I'll finish it Friday before we watch you play".

"You're really keeping your word" he sounded surprised.

"I don't care, I have never seen you play and everyone says you're really good".

I was up in my bedroom doing my homework, well, a diagram for that chemistry thing Aria copied earlier; I hoped my teacher would like a pretty diagram. It wasn't good at all; even a 2 year old could probably do better.

I heard the front door being opened but nobody said anything so I had no idea whether it was Matt or my parents trying to give me a heart attack.

"Mom? Dad?" I said loudly.

It was probably a little stupid doing this but they might not have known I was in so I had nothing to lose in my perspective.

I got up quietly now thinking that something was wrong cuz nobody said anything even now. I got as far as the banister cuz I chickened out going downstairs. Yep, it definitely wasn't anyone I knew, I thanked myself for bringing up all of the laptops and expensive things earlier when I came in from school thanks to my OCD.

They couldn't have found anything whoever they were because they came back into the foyer taking one last look around before leaving, they were clearly unsuccessful.

I don't think they bothered coming upstairs cuz they knew I was here, but also knew I was too scared to go down there too see them. After I heard the door click I went down there to see whether they did take anything but couldn't find anything that was missing, everything was just like it was when I went up to my room.

I was quite shaken up, I didn't get how they managed to get in cuz the door was locked but I knew never to question A otherwise I would get hurt. I picked up my phone out of my pocket and dialled Matt's number walking into my kitchen. He picked up straight away like he always did when ti was me.

"Hey what's up?" He asked casually.

"Um" I struggled to find the right words to say, something didn't seem right about my kitchen.

"Lex?" he was probably wondering whether I was still there, "Something wrong?".

"Y-yeah" I stammered, exiting my day dream around my kitchen, "Can you come round mine?".

"Yeah sure, be a couple of minutes" he said before I hung up.

I managed to figure out what was missing, it was a photo of me and Joe . I turned around and stood on something hard, looking down I saw the picture I thought was missing and thankfully no damage was caused to me or the frame holding the photo.

Matt turned up and let himself in, almost giving me a heart attack in the process.

"You look like you've seen a ghost" he said.

"Well someone just broke into my house" I said, "A knows where I live".

"Did they take anything?" he asked.

"I can't see anything missing so I guess not" I said, "I thought it might've been Joe or my parents".

"At least you're okay" he offered a smile.

"I'm not though" I sighed, "This is gonna get even worse than it already is".

"Don't think like that" he said taking my hands, "You always give A what they want and something happens whether you like it or not, you will find out who this is though" he said.

"Relationships will be the first thing they ruin cuz then I'm even more vulnerable" I huffed, I couldn't even bear the thought of it, let alone implying that this was going to happen.

"Do you want me to stay?" he asked.

"I don't know" I shrugged, "Just promise me we won't break up over this".

"Lex I promised myself that I would never do this when I first found out about this, and I'm not changing my mind" he said hugging, "And besides if I did I'd probably go insane".

A/N: So gremlins, this entire story should be over in about 3 or 4 chapters, I am thinking about a sequel but to be honest I wanna get this over with first, anyways thanks for reading and I love you all!


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